Alex stood alone on an island to the south of the Southern Continent. This was the island with the Voidgate through which everyone had come from the Eastern Continent.
Now, Alex was going to use it to get back to the Eastern Continent.
He walked into the small cave on the island, faint silver and purple light glowing up the sides of the wall.
He stared into the small and beautiful opening that led into the Void. He stopped right in front of the Voidgate, feeling the aura of Space and Time gently hover in the area.
Alex's chest felt heavy at the moment, out of both trepidation for what was to come and the tightening of the oath that he had made to the Dragon Emperor.
His mind lay heavy as well, making him suffer a little.
His cultivation was at the peak of the Saint Soul 9th realm at the moment. He had tried his best and had been ready to break through too. But he simply didn't want to risk anything, for he was sure that the threat the Dragon Emperor posed to him was one that he could not easily take away from his mind.
Alex took a deep breath, thinking about everything he had planned. There were a lot of plans, and a lot of moving parts, and any of them could go wrong.
He had to be ready for anything going forward from here.
He reached out with his hands and tore open the Voidgate to be wider. A stronger aura of Space and Time flowed out of the Voidgate, and the Void brightened the cave with its dichromatic light.
Then, Alex jumped in.
Immediately, he was back in the Void, a place he had come to a long time ago and had not been in for the past 30 years.
Alex swam through the empty space within the swirling lights that surrounded him, moving him like a fish through an ocean current.
The swirling energy both seemed ridiculously far from him and at the same time, so close that they were practically right in front of him.
He moved through the void, feeling the effect of both space and time.
Alex had a vague understanding that somehow the space was being shrunken in here. That was even without the knowledge that the distance between the two Voidgates was quite low.
He could somewhat understand the mysteries behind the aura within the channel. Only, they were still impossible to figure out entirely.
The Time aura in the Void certainly did something as well. Given how he was told that it would take him 3 hours in here, but barely any time would have passed outside, he could guess that time was stretched in here to be longer.
Even with that knowledge, there was nothing Alex could figure out from the time aura. He tried to close his eyes and see if he could find anything out, but the constant pain in his mind made him unable to focus entirely.
Still, he felt both aura at the same time and was lost in his thoughts.
Space and Time aura were two things that were meant to be impossible to sense unless you spent a lot of time around it, and even then it was impossible.
Somehow, Alex had managed to sense the both of them.
He had been able to sense Time aura thanks to Scarlet; the bond with the Vermilion bird had allowed him to sense Time aura.
However, he had always assumed that sensing Space Aura had been his own talent even since he absorbed the entire Space stone.
Only now, he was beginning to understand that might not have been the case at all. Just as Scarlet helped him with Time Aura, his ability to sense Space aura must have come from his bond with an Azure Dragon.
His bond with Pearl.
Azure Dragons had an inborn talent to detect Space aura and Teleport, just as Vermilion Bird had an inborn talent to detect Time aura and go through Rebirth.
'No wonder Pearl could learn Teleportation dao so easily,' Alex thought. 'If he still had his bloodline and Supreme Wood Root, he probably wouldn't have required that.'
His thoughts led him to many places, as the 3 hours that required for him to arrive on the other side of the Voidgate passed very quickly.
Alex realized that he had arrived at the other Voidgate that connected this spatial tunnel inside the Void and was ready to go out.
The other side of the Voidgate was in the middle of nowhere, floating like a crack in space.
As Alex neared, the crack widened up on its own and he was tossed outside of it.
Alex flew outside of the Voidgate, straight into a bright barrier that was held around the Voidgate. At the same time, Alex felt his cultivation base severely drop all of a sudden from the peak of the Saint Soul realm to just the peak of the Saint Foundation realm.
He also felt a pressure on his Spiritual sea that further burdened his already burdened mind.
Even before Alex could orient himself at where he had arrived, numerous spiritual senses landed on him at the same time.
"It's him!" a few voices called out.
Alex turned and saw a group of 20 or so cultivators that appeared out of nowhere, staring down at him.
"I'm flattered," Alex said. "Did the Emperor make you all wait for me?"
A single cultivator flew to the front while the rest remained behind, all of whom started using their battle array to empower the singular person who had moved forward.
The man who moved forward was someone Alex didn't recognize, but his dark blue robes were enough for Alex to tell that he was someone high in the military.
Seeing his attitude, Alex was certain the man was even a Battalion leader most likely.
"His Majesty did indeed say you would most likely take this route. You can stay here. We will call the His Majesty right away," the man said.
"I would rather you not," Alex said with a gentle smile, hidden behind which was a threat.
"I suggest you stay," the man spoke back. "Or would you rather be beat up and be forced to stay? Either way is fine for me."
Alex gave a happy grin. "Hurray! Fight it is."
He teleported instantly, arriving next to the man as he kicked him from the sky into the ground. A glow of energy, born from a talisman, protected the man on the ground, but he still grunted in pain.
"Activate it!" the man shouted.
Alex was ready for whatever bad was coming next, but what came instead was a flow of energy as the suppression field around him slowly disappeared.
His cultivation returned to him, and at the same time, the cultivation of the man below him returned as well.
The man stood back up, dusting off the dirt from his robe, and flared the Saint Transformation 5th realm cultivation base that was increased to nearly the 7th realm due to being the focus of the array.
"I see we will have to do it the hard way," the man said. "It is a good thing His Majesty allowed us anything short of death."
The man brought out a giant hammer and prepared for battle.
