The old man couldn't believe that over 30 years had passed since he was trapped in this room. No, he refused to believe it.
After all, he had only spent no more than a month here.
"You're lying," the old man said. "There's no way such a long time could have passed without me realizing it."
"I told you already," Alex said. "It's been 40 years since your granddaughter died and 30 years since your grandson died. I've grown strong in that time. Whether you believe it or not, I don't care."
Alex started moving, going closer to the old man.
The old man took a step back in fear, however, his steps were heavy and slow because of Alex's aura that stopped him from doing anything sudden.
The old man's survival instincts kicked in pretty soon and he started sending out a barrage of attacks at Alex. However, not a single one of those attacks landed on him at all.
Alex simply swatted them away before they even reached him.
The old man tried to run into the other room, but he found himself unable to move through the door. Even though the door was open and there was nothing stopping him from entering, he was still blocked by something invisible.
"Don't bother trying to run. I've already cut off the space in this room so there's nowhere for you to go," he said. "Now, I don't have much time, so I will need to speed up my revenge."
He reached into his storage ring and pulled out a pill bottle. He took a pill and walked next to the frozen old man before grabbing his face. He opened his mouth forcefully and shoved the pill into him.
Once the pill started taking effect, he let go of the man.
"What did you do to me? Did you poison me?" the old man asked. "Bastard, I'll kill you."
"What's your wife's name?" Alex asked.
"Han Yinxue," the man answered immediately before realizing what he had done. "What… what did you do to me?"
"Alright, the Saint Truth Seeking pill has taken effect," Alex said. "It will wear off fast, so I will have to quickly ask my question."
"First of all, how many Spiritual energy-related books did you find during the meteor shower over a millennia ago?" Alex asked.
The man tried to place his hand on his mouth so he couldn't answer, but his mouth moved on its own.
"2!"
"What are the names?" Alex asked.
The old man tried to stop himself, even going so far as to bang his own head on the floor. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find himself able to stop answering the questions.
"Spiritual Rolling Waves and Spirit Search," the man answered.
Alex's eyes narrowed when he heard the answer. 'That's it,' he thought. 'That's what I'm looking for.'
"What is Spirit Search?" he asked.
The old man struggled, but he gave the information in the end. "It's a technique that allows you to read through someone's memories as long as you are inside their spiritual sea as a spiritual avatar."
'Bingo!' Alex thought.
"And where is the book or talisman for this technique?" Alex quickly asked.
"With me," the man said. He could not even think of stopping himself this time around.
Alex only smiled at the revelation.
The old man realized what was going to happen next. Alex was going to steal from him and take away his book on Spirit Search.
'I won't let him,' he thought. He immediately reached for the storage bag on his waist. At the very least, he was going to destroy it so Alex couldn't get his hands on it.
However, before he could do anything, four golden spears flew at an incredible speed, each of which hit all 4 limbs of the old man.
The spears sent the man into the wall, pinning him there. Alex made a simple gesture and took away the old man's storage bags.
"You bastard! If you're going to kill me, then just kill me," he shouted. "Stop humiliating me."
Alex looked at him and made a thinking face before shaking his head. "Nah, that would be too simple," he said. "I told you, I'm here for revenge with some interest on top. Killing you right away wouldn't be as satisfying."
He took the storage bag and opened it. Inside were various stuff from simple pills to formation flags. He ignored most items and searched for books or talismans.
As he did, he found the first book. He skimmed over a bit to see what it was about and learned that it was an advanced book on formations that even Saints could learn from.
"Oh," he was a little surprised. "I forgot you had quite the knowledge on formation too. That's right, your grandson was the one who taught me how to activate non-metallic formations in the first place. Not that I needed it thanks to my physique."
The old man grunted in pain. He tried to pull his arm away from the wall, but the golden spears were stuck in the wall quite tightly.
Alex put aside the formation book for now and searched for the others. He found the Spiritual Rolling Waves technique pretty soon. It was a technique that allowed one to send out a massive wave of spiritual energy, like the one the old man had used just moments ago.
It was a good technique as it would allow him to use his spiritual attack in a wide area, unlike Heaven's Impact which only targeted a single person each time.
"That's a nice technique," Alex thought and put it aside as well. He continued searching through the storage bag until he finally found it.
"There it is," he spoke out loud, letting the old man hear it as he brought out the book called Spirit Search.
Alex was quite familiar with this technique as he had been the victim of it twice until now.
The first time was because of Fu Zexi who had kidnapped him after the annual tournament in the Cardinal City and had taken him to the forest where he had looked through his memories.
It was only thanks to Zexi's weak avatar and his own devouring ability that Alex had managed to survive through that.
The second time had been when Fu Tao had tried to sneak a peak into his secrets when he was attacked in this very secret realm. Alex had allowed him to see what he wanted to and then subsequently killed him by devouring his avatar.
Both of these instances were ones that Alex had hated for different reasons. For the first one, he was helpless and had barely made out alive. For the second one, he felt like he was betrayed by someone he thought he could call his brother.
However, enough time had passed by now that those events were nothing but distant memories to him. All he remembered at the moment was the impression the skill had made on him.
And now, he had the same skill in his hand. To top it all off, the perfect lab rat was waiting for him to try out the technique on right in front of him.
