The old man thought of fighting Alex once, but seeing Shan Wangjiu deep in concentration made him not want to disturb him. So, he left with his group, soon disappearing toward the lake in the distance.
Alex sat back, thinking to himself about what he had just heard about.
"So they've formed groups huh?" he spoke slowly to himself. "Was that why all the stronger ones left not long after fighting me?"
He had assumed they left because they'd had enough of his pills, but now that he heard another possibility, it sounded much more probable.
"What was that about 'those groups?'?" he wondered. 'Ruin my time here?'
Thinking a bit, he could imagine what sort of things people could do after coming together to form a large enough group. If one considered the secret realm a game, then playing together gave one a lot more advantages than playing alone.
"Should I look for people to go around with?"
As soon as the question came to him, Alex shook his head. One or two people he wouldn't mind, but a group of 5 or 10, or even more he couldn't handle. It would hamper his freedom a bit too much.
Like it or not, Alex was as much a lone wolf as the young man behind him claimed himself to be. At least in matters like these.
Not an hour after the sun rose in the east, Alex sensed a significant movement from the young man beside him. Turning around, he noticed him suddenly break out into beads of sweat.
The sword was actively attacking him this time around.
He saw the young man hold tightly onto the sword, even as the budding sword spirit assaulted his mind, dreading if he would accidentally let go.
If he let go of the sword, all the progress he had made over the past day would've been for none, and he would have to start all over again. While that would be fine, the young man understood that if he gave in now, the sword spirit would view him as a weakling who wasn't worthy of it.
The young man wanted to show that he was.
"You know who I am," he spoke out loud suddenly, surprising even Alex. "You have seen my journey. I was 15 when I found you. Not even 70 and I'm already in the Saint Soul realm. Could your previous master have done that?"
His pained face grimaced even more as the sword assaulted him even more. Talking about its previous master wasn't the correct way to gain its approval it seemed.
The young man did the bare minimum to not let it destroy him but never fought back. Fighting back was what he was going to do if nothing worked. For now, he still had his word.
"You wanna see the world? I can show you," the young man said. "You wanna fight the world? I can fight with you. Grow to be the greatest sword of all time? I can make you."
"All you have to do is say yes. Say yes and… and together we can conquer the world."
The young man's face let off a hint of relief. He took the opportunity to say a few more things to the sword. Make a few more promises.
And then, not even 10 minutes after he started speaking, he pulled a droplet of blood out of his forehead and let it fall onto the giant sword.
The sword drank the drop of blood and let out a shrilling cry, which surprised Alex as he could hear it too. It glowed a bright yellow, bright even in the morning sun, and then mellowed out until there was no light.
It kept a light hum for a few more seconds before that disappeared as well. And then the sword shrank. Slowly, it got smaller and smaller until it was only a meter long, the rest shrinking in proportion as well.
"No," the young man said with a grin. "I like you big."
The sword immediately shrank back to its original size and the young man stood up with the sword in hand. He moved it around, surprised how light it was, surprised that he didn't have a massive headache for just using it.
"Haha!" he laughed out loud. "I did it! Master, I did it."
"Congratulations," Alex said, happy to have seen such a thing happen. It was quite a sight to see, which he was sure not many would've seen in this world, much less experienced.
Seeing what he saw reminded Alex of the black sword in his own Soul Space, which he would be more than happy to make submit to himself, if not for already having Midnight.
He also left it alone for the possibility of finding exactly who had used it to kill Pearl's mother. All clues as of yet led Alex to the theory that during some conflict, it was the dead Empress that had killed the White Cat.
That was who had the sword last.
"Woohoo!"
The young man's cheerful shout brought Alex back to the present, making him smile at the young man's happiness. He swung his sword around, ignoring Alex for the moment, practicing a few things.
As he practiced, it became very clear to Alex that the young man had no idea how to even use a sword.
Alex didn't know if to laugh at him or feel pity. "Did you never try to use another sword before?" he asked. "A regular one."
"Why would I? I had one of the best swords out there," the young man said as he slashed diagonally with his sword, almost as if he was copying what Alex did with his new unnamed technique.
He couldn't watch it any longer.
"Stop! Stop!" Alex spoke, and the young man came to a halt.
"Hmm? Oh right," Shan Wangjiu said quickly. "Sorry, I was so excited with the sword. That was probably disrespectful to you, Master."
"It's not about disrespect," Alex said. "It's about your lack of sword skill. It seems as though you have trained in swordsmanship for 2 months during your whole life. The way you swing your blade, you will club a man to death before you manage to cut him down."
The young man nodded, understanding his shortcomings. "Is there something I can do about it?" he asked.
Alex nodded. "Of course," he said. "You just have to practice. I'll teach you and you can be a fine swordsman in no time."
The young man looked up. "You'll teach me?" he asked.
"Yes," Alex said with a sigh. "Well, I'm only going to give you some pointers is all. I don't have time to train you all day. I have better things to do than that."
"That's fine," the young man said. "Whatever you can give me. Although, can I get that sword technique you have been using recently? That is what caught my eyes, and why I've been sticking around really."
"That is my creation, and I can't just hand it over to you."
Alex saw the young man's eyes drop in disappointment.
"But, I have quite a few other sword techniques I can teach you that aren't necessarily bad either."
