In the following week, Alex went to another island besides the first one and searched through the forest on that island to see what he could find. This island was larger than either of the two before, so he managed to find a few more plants to heal his spirit.
By the end of the week, his spirit had grown to be somewhere on part with a starting Mind Tempering realm cultivator. Since it was in this realm where one's spirit truly became strong, Alex would have to work even harder from this point forward to find more spirit-healing plants.
On the opposite end of his struggle, he had no problem finding items to heal his body and had long since healed all of his wounds. Right now, he was only collecting them for the sake of collecting them.
Since these plants were already there, there was no point in letting them rot in the forest. Not all of them were just for healing too.
Then, the search continued.
For the next 2 days, Alex searched the island completely, and there was nothing else there to be found. It was time to move on to another one.
"Are there no better islands to move to?" Alex asked the old man as they flew back toward the main island.
"There is one large and full of wonderful plants on the other side, but we can't go there until those soldiers leave," the old man said. "We might have to even stay hidden for a few days so they pass by."
Alex frowned at the thought of losing days of potential searching for cures. He grumbled inside, wanting to protest, but he knew better. This was for the best.
"Alright, we will do as you say," he said.
5 days later, the old man finally let Alex know that it was safe enough to leave. There were no more soldiers around the area.
"Finally," Alex stood up from where he sat in the cave. "I was going to go mad waiting."
"How can you go mad staying in one place for just 5 days?" the old man asked. "I'm sure you've spent more time just cultivating,"
"But I'm not cultivating," Alex said. "Also, each passing second is important to me. My future depends on it. I can't have time slip by me and not worry right now."
"At least there is one good news," the old man said. "We're going to go to the big island today."
Alex's eyes widened in happiness. "Really?" he asked.
The old man nodded. "The soldiers moved to the other side, so we can go to that one now," he said. "Hopefully, we'll find what you need, so we can improve your spirit to become as strong as True Realm as soon as possible. Will that be enough for you to do whatever you are planning?"
"I… don't know," Alex said. "I'll have to test when we get there, but I fear that I must restore at least Saint realm level of spirit before I can get anywhere."
"Saint realm… is that even possible as a mortal?" the old man asked.
Alex could only shrug. "I don't really know," he said. "But I'm betting on it. If not… well, I'll have a long path ahead of me."
"Let us pray you don't then." The old man took out his medallion to check one last time and nodded. "Time to leave."
After half an hour of flight above the ocean, Alex arrived on the other island.
"I haven't seen many ocean beasts coming out to attack in this area. Aren't they supposed to be active?" Alex asked the old man.
"It's these soldiers that are forcing them to stay low," the old man said. "The strong ones naturally stay away from land, and those that live nearby are not strong enough to come out when the humans are around."
"Is that so?" Alex asked, nodding to himself. "It's a good thing then. We wouldn't want strong beasts to attack us randomly."
The old man nodded as well.
The new island was mostly flat with a vast land full of forests, both thick and sparse, as well as a grassland that spread far and wide. Even at the fastest, it would still take Alex over 2 weeks to search the entire island.
A satisfied smile formed on his face after seeing it all. "This place looks a lot more promising than any of the other ones. We should be able to find something here."
"I'll look for the things that I know are important or the ones that you collected before," the old man said and began searching the island with his spiritual sense.
Alex found more items in 3 hours in this place than he did in the other islands in entire days. 3 flowers, 2 fruits, one stalk, and 2 sets of roots.
After an hour, he found a plant that grew a select few leaves with some spiritual energy in it. Eating those would give good results.
The old man was making steady progress and was in fact better than Alex at finding everything. Since he could cover such a large area with his spiritual sense, he could see much more area than Alex could.
Even if he wasn't as perceptive of the plants as Alex was, he was still much better at finding them all. So, in the time it took Alex to gather what he did, the old man had already located items nearly 10 times as many.
Alex continued, picking what he could find, but still mostly searching for just the ones that healed his spirit. He also tried to find new plants so the old man could know what to look for next.
Some items were naturally very hard to find, and Alex could only find them either through experience or through the Alchemy God's Intent that still remained in his mind.
They continued searching while the old man brought Alex to the locations where he had found the items. There were some that he needed Alex to pick unless he made a mistake and ruined them somehow.
"These should be enough to help heal your spirit a lot," the old man said. "Should we continue searching?"
"Do you recommend doing otherwise?" Alex asked. "If it is dangerous, we can leave and come back."
"It's not dangerous," the old man said. "It is just going to get dark is all. And you're still a mortal with a wounded spirit, so you'll need much more rest."
Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I'll do what you say."
"We still have time," the old man said with a smile. "Let us continue searching for an hour longer. We can return afterward."
He spread his spiritual sense through the island again, searching for items that were in there. Since he was further on the island, he could cover more area effectively.
"Oh, there's a spirit—"
The old man frowned all of a sudden and turned around with a dark look on his face.
"What?" Alex asked, confused. "What's wrong?"
"Spiritual sense," the old man said. "Two. They noticed me, but they should be far enough away that they can't sense us properly. What should we do?"
