Alex walked down the stairs under the gazes of the hundreds of disciples and elders that were gathered there. He made no effort to change his aura and let the people see and feel it clearly. Only then would the small fries leave him alone.
However, this would also mean that he was now a viable target from anyone in the higher ranks that were threatened by him.
'Let them come. I doubt I will lose to anyone other than the top 3 now,' Alex thought and kept walking.
He looked at Huo Tu's lackeys who were looking at him with horror in their eyes. Alex couldn't help but sigh. He rummaged into his storage bag and brought out a pill.
He suddenly tossed it towards them. The lackeys who had been watching the match quite intently mistook the pill for an explosive and stumbled backward in horror only for it to land on their body without anything happening to them.
"It's a healing pill for your boss. Give it to him, and tell him never to bother me again. I won't be as lenient next time."
The lackeys immediately started nodding like crazy and ran to where Huo Tu was. Alex shook his head and walked towards his senior sister.
"You… have become quite strong. Just like those new people," Luo Mei said with a sad smile on her face.
"Yes, well, I guess I count as one of them," he said.
Luo Mei's face got even sadder when she heard that. "Does that mean you will leave us when you get what you want?" she asked.
"What? Of course not. I will stay in the sect as long as the sect welcomes me. The Hong Wu sect and Tiger sect are like my home now," Alex said.
This refreshed Luo Mei's mood a little and smiled. "Alright, let's go to Master's place. I want you to tell me how you got so strong," she said and started walking.
Alex followed behind her too. With the Prime Disciple taking way Alex, no one dared bother him anymore. Event he First Elder who was looking from the side didn't do anything but keep smiling.
Through the right part of the crater, they walked back up to the front side of the mountain.
"By the way, Sister, how did you know to be there?" Alex asked.
"Oh, Huo Tu made quite a noise about how he was going to beat the person that underhandedly beat him and get his honor back," Luo Mei said.
"Oh, he must've made quite a noise for so many people to wait for him there," Alex said.
The two of them soon reached his master's manor and entered. Seeing that there was no one there, Luo Mei took Alex to the training hall behind the manor and entered.
She then sent a message to her master. "Alright, master will be here soon. Come on, tell me then, how did you become so strong in such little time," she asked.
"Well, like everyone else that cultivates fast," Alex said.
Luo Mei thought for a second and asked, "Pill?"
"Yeah, I made and ate a lot of pills during my month-long entrapment. I had nothing to do but train and cultivate, so I got strong quite fast," he said.
"That's… bad you know?" she said.
"I know. I made sure to put in training between each breakthrough. If not for waiting, I could've probably reached the True Realms by now," Alex said.
"Woah, I knew you were fast, but this is just…" Luo Mei didn't know what to say.
"I can't be as fast anymore though, with each increasing realm, the time I need to wait in between to stabilize my foundation is increasing. "
"It wasn't until 5 or so days of hunting in the jungle that I felt comfortable breaking through to my current realm from the last one," Alex said.
"5 days to breakthrough… if the others heard you, they would flay your skin to see what you are made up of," Luo Mei said with a chuckle.
Suddenly, Luo Mei looked to the side. "Master is here," she said.
After 2 seconds, Alex too felt him fly towards the Training hall through his spiritual sense. 'Sister's spiritual sense must be quite strong. I will need to give her that pill too," Alex thought.
"Yu Ming, are you okay?" Wen Cheng asked the moment he entered the training hall.
"I'm fine, master," Alex said.
"Oh, I see. I heard you gave quite a beating to— Woah, that's your true cultivation base?" Wen Cheng asked. He could finally see his cultivation base clearly thanks to Alex not hiding anything.
"Yes, master," Alex said.
"Ah, I see. I had nothing to worry about then," Wen Cheng said. "Alright, I have a little task that will take me an hour. You two stay by yourself for that time okay?"
Wen Cheng left before they could even say anything. "What do you want to do?" Luo Mei asked.
"I want to fight you, sister," Alex said with a voice full of determination.
"Fight me? You aren't satiated from fighting with Huo Tu?" Luo Mei asked with a smile.
"No. That wasn't even enough to make me really use anything. I want to have a real fight against you. I have been training for a while now, and I want to know if I made any mistakes while training by myself," he said.
"Very well then. If that is what you wish," Luo Mei said and brought out a blue rapier-like sword. Alex brought a normal sword as well.
"Huh? Didn't you have another better sword?" Luo Mei asked.
"Yes, but I'm trying to learn swordsmanship with this common sword. Just like how Du Yuhan learns," Alex said.
"Tsk, don't say his name," Luo Mei got annoyed when she heard his name.
'She must still be angry from the time when he refused to fight her in the competition,' Alex thought.
"I have a True Mortal Armor, sister. So you can attack my body without reservation," Alex said.
"Very well," Luo Mei said and immediately disappeared. If it was not for focus mode, he wouldn't have noticed when she arrived right next to him.
Alex brought up his sword as fast as he could and blocked the sword strike. The next moment, another sword hit from his left side.
Alex couldn't keep track of Luo Mei when she moved, and only noticed her when she stopped to attack him.
'Dammit, she is way too fast for me. Is this because of her cultivation base?' Alex thought. He returned the sword back to block that strike as fast as he could with the least effort put into it.
Luo Mei disappeared again. Suddenly, he got hit on the back and was sent flying forward until he hit the wall and was stopped.
"Argh! You are too strong, sister," he said as he looked towards Luo Mei who was smiling.
"You are the one who said he wanted a serious fight. Do you want me to slow down?" she asked.
"No, keep it going," he said and ran forward. He felt himself dash forward with very high momentum, but just as he reached Luo Mei, she suddenly moved and disappeared from his view once more.
If not for this spiritual sense, he would be a sitting duck right now. He sent his sword backward to stop her sword and they clashed, but Luo Mei didn't stop there.
She disappeared once again and appeared in front of him, swinging her sword at his chest.
'Stop her' he thought and swung his sword forward. The two swords hit each other, and both of them were pushed back. Alex nearly flew the entire room's width, while Luo Mei only stumbled back a few steps.
Alex got up immediately to attack, but then he saw Luo Mei stop in her tracks, with her eyes wide and her mouth open.
"Sword Intent!" she said in shock. "You used Sword Intent!"
"A version of it, yeah," Alex said. "I've been trying to learn it for a month now, ever since I saw it being used in the Annual Sect Competition. However, even though I take pride in my ability to learn anything, this thing has taken me way too long."
"Even after a month of training, I can only use it to a rudimentary level," Alex said.
"That's… impossible. Didn't you only start to cultivate a few months ago? You hadn't even touched a sword before that. How did you learn the Intent so fast," she asked.
"I… can't answer that. I just learned it while fighting a few beasts in the forest," Alex said.
"Come, attack me. I want to see how strong your Sword Intent is," Luo Mei said.
"Okay," Alex said and rushed forward. The moment he arrived in front of Luo Mei, he struck down.
'HIT'
Another force, much stronger than the last time, hit Luo Mei sending her back more than just a few steps.
"That's… strong, but how much of it is just your strength, and how much of it is the Intent?" Luo Mei asked.
"How do we determine that?" Alex asked.
"Hmm…" Luo Mei suddenly moved her arm and blue light shined from it. The blue light then condensed to become an Ice Armor around her.
"Try to break this with your normal attack," she said.
Alex nodded and attacked. He expected a strong rebound from the sword, but it cut through the ice like it was butter. "What? I told you not to use intent yet," Luo Mei said.
"I'm not, sister," Alex said.
"Uhh, but this ice should be able to stop any Meridian Tempering 9th realm cultivator's attack. Are you stronger than that?" she asked.
"Yes, sister. My body cultivation alone is at the 5th realm of Organ Tempering and I can output damage equal to 1st Mind Tempering realm just with those two alone. If I use skills, I should be able to output about 3rd realm of Mind Tempering in terms of damage," Alex said.
"I-Is that so?" Luo Mei said with an awkward smile. "Very well," she said as he made a must more robust sheet of ice. "This will block 4th Mind tempering Realm cultivator's attack," she said. "Now attack."
Alex nodded and poured golden Qi into the sword he was holding. The common sword glowed yellow suddenly and Alex struck the ice.
BENG
His sword hit the ice at an acute angle and entered about a few centimeters in. After that, however, it was stopped.
"I see. So, 4th Mind Tempering realm is the strongest attack you can make right now," Luo Mei said. She moved her hands once more and the ice healed again.
"Try it again, but this time, use your Intent," Luo Mei said.
Alex nodded and propped up his sword to attack. He then took a deep breath and released it.
'CUT'
He swung it down.
BENG
Once again, a strong sound rose from his sword hitting the ice, but this time, his sword managed to reach all the way to the other side of the thick ice sheet.
"I see. Your sword Intent makes you stronger by a single realm," Luo Mei said. "Unlike the others who have their damage increased by at least 3 realms," Luo Mei said.
"Their damage increases by 3 realms?" Alex asked in surprise.
"Yes. That's what you get when you have a proper sword Intent. It's something I could never hope to achieve. It's something even master could never hope to achieve," Luo Mei said.
"But you have a chance to reach where we couldn't. You will have to now practice this every day, refine it. When master returns, we can ask him to teach you all about it."
"Even though he doesn't have it, he should know a bit," Luo Mei said.
Alex nodded. A fire started burning inside of him with the desire to achieve more in the realm of Weapon mastery. He promised himself, he would master Sword Intent one way or another.
