Alex's Sword Intent had been one of his greatest strengths for a while. Aside from his Qi, which could leap realms to catch up to others at a higher cultivation base, his Sword Intent had been the only thing he had that had been stronger.
Then he had received the Blood God's Manual, and that had brought along another strength that dwarfed both his Qi and Sword Intent.
After that, with how busy he was being a king and trying to come up with pill recipes and learn Daos, he hadn't had the chance to improve it much.
When he first came to the Eastern Continent, his Sword Intent had been somewhere around Saint Core 4th realm. Nearly a decade and a half had passed since then and he hadn't improved at all.
Not that he didn't want to; he simply hadn't had the time to improve his Sword Intent. He couldn't do it without having a somewhat serious fight to improve it at least.
He had improved his Intent at least and that would reflect in the Sword Intent with time, but he had to put some work into it. Just as someone with great intent couldn't establish a strong Killing intent because they weren't murderous by nature, Alex had to train to convert his regular intent to slowly fuel his Sword Intent.
And that was what Alex was intending to start doing right away.
He held his sword up, his Sword Qi flowing out of his sword, covering him, forming Sword Aura.
'Saint Core 5th realm?' he wondered at his own strength. 'Or is it 6th?'
It was somewhere in the middle, and unlike Cultivation bases, it had no clear distinction. As a result, Alex could only guess that it was at the Saint Core 6th realm.
Considering his opponent's strength of Saint Core 8th realm, Alex wasn't sure if he could win or not.
He started the fight with a simple sword slash, sending out Sword Qi. The glowing white blade of energy flew across the arena at the man.
The man's sword glowed on its own, showing his own Sword Intent. He struck away Alex's attack, sending it flying toward the barrier to his right. He couldn't help but be surprised at how weak the attack was.
He had sensed Alex's cultivation base, so that had made him think the attack was going to be stronger. When it turned out to be not as strong, he couldn't help but be even more confused.
'What's going on?' the man wondered.
Alex mused on his attack for a few seconds, judging the strength. 'Let's try a few more,' he thought and sent away a few more strikes, all of which were struck down by the man in front of him.
Each time the man destroyed Alex's attacks, his hope for the match grew more and more. 'I can win this,' he thought and lost his sense of fear that he had at the start when he had seen Alex's Sword Aura.
Now, it was his turn to attack first.
The man lunged his sword forward, a sword-shaped attack flying directly at Alex.
Alex's sword glowed bright white and he struck at the attack before it could come close to him. The two attacks clashed in mid-air, and it was clear who was stronger.
The man's attack that had Qi in it was many times stronger than Alex's attack that was merely Sword Qi alone. The incoming attack tore through its opposition and flew at Alex, who managed to step aside in time, dodging it.
Alex struck back another attack, striking at the man with all of his thoughts focused on just that strike. He wasn't just trying to fight. He was actively trying to move his Sword Intent further along the path to improvement.
This attack was the same as all other attacks, but he hoped the next one would be stronger. Stronger and stronger, that was how he was going to improve it.
There were no shortcuts here.
The man did a sweeping attack next, fire blowing out from him in a large area.
Alex saw the attack coming and swung at it, this time using his Sword Aura instead of Sword Intent. The attack landed on the fire, the clash dispersing the energy in all directions.
However, the ones Alex sent had a very strong Intent to them that he had formed a long time ago. One that had been his life motto forever now.
The spread energy quickly got back in line and attacked the strong fire Qi again, all of them moving forward no matter what.
The Sword Qi in the Sword Aura kept moving forward and tore through the attack until only a bit of it was remaining. The remaining bit was so minuscule in strength that Alex could blow at it and disperse it.
The man was surprised that his attack was stopped so easily. He had rarely seen Sword Aura and knew that not all were the same. Even then, all that he had seen were always the same type.
It either cut everything down or protected one from everything. It was rare for anyone to have a unique Sword Aura, and it seemed Alex had exactly that. He couldn't help but frown now.
He had thought that he would win if the fight was going to simply remain at the status they were at now, but Alex had proved that even weaker, his attacks packed a punch that his didn't.
He started getting desperate. So, he started sending out more attacks.
Alex sent out his own attack, all of which contained Sword Aura. The Sword Aura always kept the same property, and so until they were destroyed, they fought off the incoming attack.
As such, even when Alex's Sword Qi had Saint Core 6th realm worth of strength, his overall effectiveness became much stronger. It could almost block all of what the man dished out.
Alex couldn't help but imagine what sort of battle it would be if his opponent had Sword Aura as well, but alas, this man didn't even have Sword Qi, let alone Sword Aura.
The battle stagnated at that point.
Alex's attacks were weaker overall, but the clashes never resulted in either of them getting the upper hand in the end. The battle was getting boring and tedious for the man.
Alex was fine with it. He was focused on improving his Sword Intent, so it didn't matter if he was winning or not. But it did to his enemy.
So, the man took an action that changed the status quo of the match. An action that was a very stupid choice for him.
He went into close combat with Alex.
His thought process was simple. As Alex was essentially a mortal at this point, he could win if he could get close and hit him. Alas, that was the most unfortunate mistake he had made during the entire match.
Alex easily blocked the attack, surprising the man with the strength he carried even when he didn't have a cultivation base. He shook his head at the man, showing his disappointment.
He tossed the man hard, smashing him into the barrier at once, and won the match.
Even so, he was a little disappointed in learning that he would have to spend a lot longer than a single 10-minute match if he wanted to significantly improve his Sword Intent.
