Alex walked through the river bank, searching for a person to challenge, or for a person to fight him.
Shan Wangjiu followed him, but he stayed far enough behind that he wasn't intruding on Alex even with just his sense. He too seemed to be looking for people to fight.
"Do you want more fights, Pearl?" Alex asked as they walked along. "If you want to fight someone, let me know. I'll challenge them."
They strayed away from the river some 15 minutes later, making their way into a sparse forest with broken trees covering the ground, with craters on the ground large enough to fit a whale inside of it.
Alex stepped over fallen trees and branches, making his way deeper.
"6 months has passed," Alex said softly. "I wonder how many have left."
There were certainly way fewer people than before. "What were the bets they made again?" he remembered. "I should now have 100 thousand Spirit stones from the Gold King, Silver Queen, the Ivory Queen, and the Emerald King. I can get 150 thousand more from the Azure King when I last 4 more months."
He couldn't help but feel happy about having set up the bet. It was an easy way to earn a lot of Saint Spirit Stones, and god knew he needed them after how much he had spent on the Mountain Crushing artifact.
He had wanted to call that artifact something else, but the name had stuck for now. If it was ever going to change, it wouldn't be anytime soon.
"550 thousand Saint Spirit stones," he whispered to himself. "I just have to last 100 or so more days."
He had no doubt he could do that.
Alex saw multiple people in the forest, but each one he saw was a bit too weak for him to want to challenge. As for Pearl, he didn't seem to want to fight right now.
Alex ignored the weaker people until he ran into an older man with short hair, and thin eyelashes. He remembered seeing this man before; he was one of the people who had challenged him and won.
His Saint Soul 6th realm cultivation base had easily dwarfed his Sword Intent and had taken away the, so he had no chance of winning against him in any way.
The man noticed Alex as well and smiled before giving a slight bow. "Your Majesty! So it is true you have closed up shop," the man said.
"I have," Alex said.
"I heard everyone got too weak for you," the man said with laughter.
"That's not exactly true," Alex said.
The man looked at him, wanting to say something when he paused for a moment. Before Alex could say something, the man quickly responded. "Actually, if you don't mind. I'll be on my way."
"Actually, would you mind fighting me?" Alex said with a small smile. "I haven't fought yet."
The man looked at Alex and grimaced a little. "But you're stronger now, Your Majesty," he said. "What good could come from challenging little old me?"
"A new day has started, and I haven't fought yet," Alex said.
"This… are you looking to get done with your Loss match through me?" the man asked.
"I am hoping to," Alex said.
The man pondered for a bit. "Can I get a pill? Like you did for everyone that lost to you?" he asked.
"The shop is shut down," Alex said. "Unless someone challenges me, I don't plan on giving away any more pills."
The man's face twisted. "Then I'm afraid I will have to refuse. Losing 36 points was not fun, but he had to do it. His talisman buzzed and he bowed toward Alex. "Now, if you'll excuse me."
The man walked off.
Alex stood there, surprised that he had been refused. He had accepted so many battles over the past 6 months that he had forgotten one was even allowed to refuse.
The man had lost points for sure, but Alex hadn't gained any. One didn't get points if the other refused.
He sighed a little. "What about my Loss match?" he wondered. He hadn't earned points, but that didn't mean his Loss match should remain there.
But to his disappointment, it was. He still had to fight someone and win or lose. If he didn't do that, he would gain a Loss. "I should get going," he thought.
He was about to move on when he heard the man speak out loud. "Young man, do you want to fight me?" he asked.
Alex turned around to see what was happening and saw that the man he had just parted with had challenged the one that followed him.
Alex looked at the young man and wondered what he was going to do next. The young man simply grinned. "I accept," he shouted loudly, pulling out a sword that was entirely too large for him.
The sword was nearly 2 meters long and almost an entire arm's length wide at the base. It got narrowed toward the front, but not too much until the very end at which point the blade narrowed to a point.
The cross guard of the blade was equally as large as well, and the hilt another arm's length long.
That was an entirely preposterous sword, which somehow reminded him of the steel sword he used when he was first getting started. Except that had been nowhere near as large as this one.
The young Shan Wangjiu hoisted it up on his shoulder. Anyone could tell that the weight of the blade was a bit too much for him to handle normally.
'He's Saint Soul 2nd realm,' Alex thought. 'How heavy is the sword?'
The battle began with the young man charging first. He swung the sword down, the slow blade easily dodged by the man he fought.
The man then used a technique and created a blue blast that sent the young man flying away, leaving his sword behind.
He had lost so very easily. It almost looked like he had given up on fighting from the very start.
The man looked to himself in a satisfied manner and walked away.
Alex, ever too curious, walked up to where the two had just fought. He arrived next to the sword that was half stuck on the ground.
He grabbed onto it and felt something. The weight of the sword suddenly got so much heavier as well. "I see," he thought, understanding what had happened.
Alex closed his eyes and poured out his Intent to pull the sword up. When he did, it had gotten much lighter.
"Master!" the young man rushed back quickly and stopped when he got close. "Woah! You raise it so easily, Master."
Alex ignored the term the man used and continued looking at the sword. "How did you come to acquire this?" he asked.
Shan Wangjiu shrugged. "I had it ever since I started. It was the treasure I got when I first came here," the young man said.
Alex looked toward the young man with surprised eyes. He hadn't expected it, but it made sense when he thought about it now.
"I didn't realize you were a player."
