"Why did I think they would welcome me to their hideout with smiling faces?" Alex thought as he walked away from the grassland where he stood. "Of course, they won't let me come with them. I'm someone from the other group. For all they know, we could've just put on a show for them."
Alex sighed as he was all alone once again, having to roam the island on his own.
He looked to the sky, the sun a little lower toward the west. "At least I don't have to worry about fighting for the next 20 or so hours," he thought, walking away.
Worry vanished from him like water on a hot rock. "I suppose this is the best way to go about it."
There was freedom with being alone that he had missed the past few months he was kept in the valley. He had made a lot of advancements in the valley, but being outside was equally as important for him.
Around the time night fell, thunder and lightning marred the sky and heavy rain poured all over the land. Alex found himself covered underneath a large tree where he set up his formations to begin his cultivation.
He cultivated the entire night and hours into the morning as well. He only stopped when he knew that the sun was high in the sky.
Done with cultivating for the day, Alex checked his cultivation base and smiled a little. "I knew I should have fought more," he thought. "It makes such a good difference for my cultivation speed. I should be able to break through in a month or two at this rate."
It was a bit too early in comparison to the times he had taken to break through before. Nearly a year off. It had only been a bit over 2 years since he last broke through, and Saint Soul realm made it harder to break through the higher he went.
But even that seemed to disappear due to the amount of training and cultivation he had managed to go through in the past year and a half.
'2 months might be a bit too early even at the rate I'm improving,' Alex thought. 'Especially if I stop fighting.'
He chewed on that thought for a few seconds.
Pearl and Whisker were standing around him too, both done with their cultivation, and watched him as he grew a weird little devious smile on his face.
"Brother? What's going on?" he asked with a worried expression.
"Hehe," Alex smiled, slowly standing up and stretched. "All this time, I've only ever been attacked. The times I challenged someone had usually been so I could get through my first battle of the day."
His spiritual sense suddenly exploded from him, searching all around him, even attacking formations to look through them.
"But now, that will no longer be true. I will be the one to attack others just because I can," he said.
Hundreds of kilometers around him, people sensed his spiritual sense and many even tried to follow it back to him, but few succeeded.
The ones that did wished they hadn't.
Alex noticed a broad-shouldered man with a heavy axe in his hand, walking up a mountain who immediately grimaced the moment he was locked on by the spiritual sense.
"Let's go," Alex said, taking Pearl and Whisker into their beast space and rushing off.
He arrived on the mountaintop a few minutes later and landed in front of the broad-shouldered man who had his axe held ready for an attack.
"Come on, let's fight," Alex said.
The reset was only less than an hour away, but Alex didn't care about the reset anymore. There was no point in waiting for it if he was going to be fighting night and day.
He had spent enough time inside the secret realm that he would care if he lost the next 30 days of battles in a row and was sent out of the secret realm.
As long as it got him close to a breakthrough, it would've done its job. Improving his sword at that time was just a luxury.
The man looked at Alex, gulping a bit in fear. He had been out here searching for people in groups to fight. The weaker ones would be around here somewhere, and he wanted to find them, so he could call members of his small group to attack them.
He calmed down, happy that he hadn't been challenged after the reset. As long as it was before, he was willing to agree. He had already fought, so why should he care?
"Let's fight," the man said.
Sword struck axe and sounds of metal clashing rang through the land. Alex used only Sword Qi and Intent to fight the man, but he put all of himself in those fights.
The man had a good cultivation base with Saint Soul 8th realm, but even then he felt pressed in that fight. He used different techniques and attacks, but Alex beat through everything, attacking him in close range.
As a result, he had to fight at close range as well.
They fought for nearly 10 minutes, neither party superior to the other one, and neither lost. However, the man clearly recognized that Alex was holding himself back.
Not only was he holding himself back, but he was also not using his Qi at all, which meant he could go on for as long as he had Qi. Alex could go for much longer certainly.
He fought to win quickly, but it was hard. Alex's Sword Qi was a little too strong to just beat at once.
Then the both of them sensed their talisman buzz. Alex smiled and suddenly Qi filled his sword and he slashed.
It was a simple slash, but the man could not block it at all.
'So strong!' was all he could think before the attack sent him flying down into the mountain where he lay in a small crater. It took him a few moments to get out of it.
When he did, Alex was standing next to him.
"The reset is here," he told the man. "Do you want to rest for a bit? Or should we get straight into our next fight?"
