"Long Jianyu," Alex spoke the man's name in a somber tone. "Why are you here?"
Alex knew in his heart of hearts that he should be running and that staying here was a bad idea. But the anger he felt inside of him overwhelmed him from making every other decision.
He didn't know why he was so angry. The source of his anger seemed to be a complete mystery to him. Was it because this was the man who had reported to the Emperor about him? Or was it because he had been hunting for his sister the entire time and Alex knew about it?
Alex didn't know and he didn't care to know. He simply stared at the man, waiting for answers.
"Unfortunately, we were tossed away by your people, King Alex. They told us that we were no longer allowed there," Long Jianyu said. "We were saddened to leave, but it seemed that we didn't have to be sad. We were fortunate rather. Them sending us away led us directly to you."
'They sent him away? So they must have found out about my situation,' Alex thought. That was good news. That meant at least someone had returned to the Southern Continent. If someone did, then there was a chance of everyone making it back.
'They mustn't know I had already escaped then,' Alex thought. 'They must still think I'm captured by the Emperor, or else Scarlet or Whisker would've come for me.'
That was no matter. Alex would return to them soon enough.
"I was disturbed when I heard the news," Long Jianyu said. "I would've thought you were smart enough to not try to harm the Emperor and the continent while you were still there. How could you have done anything like that?"
Alex frowned a bit. Was that what was being told about him? That he tried to harm the Emperor and the continent?
"No," Alex answered slowly. "You know that is not true." He looked at the man's face which did not change at all.
And then he understood. "But you don't care at all. You never believed what is being reported in the first place, do you?" he asked.
"The Emperor ordered everyone to find you and take you back to him, rather alive than dead, but I think he more so expects to see you dead than alive," the man said. "Although, my report said you were supposed to have lost your cultivation base. You must have tricked them with some sort of pills."
Alex watched as the soldiers surrounded him, ready to attack. They were all ready, with more flying out of the 3 ships to come to aid if need be. He stared at the nearly 150 soldiers and then back at Long Jianyu, who was their commander.
"Years ago when you came to the Southern Continent, you knew why you were there, didn't you?" Alex asked. "You knew it was for the Second Prince and his sword, didn't you?"
Long Jianyu simply shrugged. "I told you. I don't care what the situation is. I only care what the Emperor orders me to do. I would never dare hurt the prince, but given that it was the Emperor's orders, I would've given him a few bruises if he refused to return with us."
"As for you, I don't care if you are a king or not. Instead of bruises, I will kill you so I can take back your corpse to the Emperor. So, I suggest you don't try anything rash and come with us quietly."
Alex couldn't help but let out a dry laugh. "Kill me? You wish."
A wave of spiritual energy rolled out of his mind like waves, striking an area in front of him with a very strong mental attack. Multiple artifacts glowed as they stopped these attacks, but not all Saints thought it necessary to carry such artifacts.
Those were the first ones to lose their mind, albeit temporarily.
Midnight flew out into Alex's hand and even as people reacted to it, Alex cut down 3 of the weaker saints that were unconscious. Before anyone knew what happened, those 3 dead bodies were already stored in Alex's storage ring.
And he didn't stop there.
Long Jianyu instantly retaliated, sending out a very strong sword slash toward Alex.
Alex swung his sword too, stopping the attack and then teleporting behind another person who was on the verge of falling from the sky.
He placed his left hand on the woman's body and sent out a white-hot bar of fire that burned her body, instantly killing her and the soul inside of her. The skin of the woman flaked away into charred bits while her burnt body fell to the ocean.
Alex frowned slightly at the sight of it all. That was a waste of a perfectly good corpse.
'What a shame,' he thought and instantly went on the defensive as a multitude of attacks barraged all over him.
The strongest soldier in the group was Long Jianyu with Saint Transformation's 4th realm cultivation base. There were a few others with a much lower Saint Transformation realm cultivation base, with a majority of them in the Saint Soul realm, and a few others in the Saint Core realm.
The onslaught of attacks was certainly annoying, but none were threatening enough for Alex to be worried about.
All he had to be worried about was Long Jianyu's attacks. At his cultivation base, he had to have enough Immortal Qi for a single attack, and Alex had to be ready for it.
"Soldiers! Protect your comrades," Long Jianyu shouted. The soldiers that were trying to fight Alex now went toward their unconscious friends to look after them. They started getting them back to consciousness one by one.
Long Jianyu flew toward Alex at the same time and struck at him with a wind slash that contained a very strong Sword Intent. Alex attacked back, sending out a fiery slice of his own, containing Sword Qi in it.
The two attacks clashed, and Long Jianyu's face went wide in shock. Alex's attacks were just as strong as his own.
'So the rumors were true?' He couldn't believe it.
Long Jianyu struck out some more, but Alex kept fighting back against him, even going so far as to make him fight on the defensive by the end of it.
He had heard about Alex being able to fight above his cultivation base, but this was way more than just above. It was far, far above.
Alex dodged a disc-shaped attack that flew toward him and protected himself against pellets of rocks that another soldier threw at him. He then swung an attack with Sword Aura in it and attacked a man.
The man's body was cut in half, but his soul flew out, dazed but unharmed. Alex teleported next to that man and took his body while attacking the dazed soul. The attack cut through the soul and then landed on another soldier, wounding him but not killing him.
"Soldiers!" Long Jianyu roared. "Get in formation."
The soldiers were surprised, but none dared question or be late to the task. Immediately, they all fell to an array, working together to empower the single Long Jianyu in front of them.
Alex had seen this before. As it had happened last time, the 140 soldiers gathered behind Long Jianyu in a certain formation where they used a secret technique to form an array.
The array worked in a way that only the single target of the array would be empowered by it. Last time, there had been 40 soldiers and Long Jianyu's cultivation base had pretty much improved by 2 realms.
Now there were 140. How much was his power going to be improved?
Blood armor formed around Alex and he brought out the Blood God's manual, instantly bringing out over a hundred blood beasts, enough to contend the army in front of him.
The beasts got into a pattern as well, creating the Hell Emperor's Divine Battle Array. With the hundred of them there, Alex's prowess would increase by 3 cultivation realms.
Would that be enough to fight the man in front of him? It had to be. Alex was going to fight him, one way or another.
Alex saw the giant illusory dragon that formed behind the soldiers as the array activated. He saw the dragon embroidered onto these people's uniforms. He saw the insignia on the ships behind them.
He saw the face of the man without whom they would have never gone to the Eastern Continent. Without whom he would have met his sister a long time ago. Without whom… Yao Ning would not have to die.
Anger filled Alex and he charged in.
However, the man in front of him had grown far stronger than Alex could have ever hoped for him to become.
* * * * * *
Godslayer watched the fight in worry, with the single clash telling him who was stronger here. The Array that the enemies used was very much stronger than Alex's array when the battle was not a war.
"What is going on?" he asked himself. "This kid should be running away, but he's instead fighting. Is he really that angry?"
Godslayer wanted to tell Alex to leave or else he would die. However, seeing the fight in front of his eyes, a different thought blossomed in his head.
"Hmm, maybe I was given this opportunity," he said to himself. "Maybe…"
The pieces were in place, so what more was there left to do?
"I hope this doesn't backfire in the end."
There was no more time to think. It was time to act.
