Alex and the old woman returned to the sect. As soon as they returned, the old woman left him and walked away.
She was likely planning to discuss what she had seen with the other elders.
Alex returned back to his aunt, and after letting her know he was back, he went to his room.
He then cultivated, while constantly experimenting with his skills and abilities to see how much they had improved.
From what he could see, they were around the same level as his Metal and Yang skills, maybe a little worse, but far better than anything else.
Alex was happy to see it improve and couldn't help but look forward to finding better Fire treasures so he could improve it more.
Now that he had done it, Alex needed to think of what else he wanted to do exactly. There were a few places he wanted to visit such as the Intercontinental Teleportation formation. He wanted to go there and see for himself if it really was out of commission for the moment.
Even if he couldn't go back to the Western Continent with it, given that the Intercontinental teleportation formation there was ruined during the war five thousand years ago, he could still use it to go to the Southern Continent to find his father, or the Eastern Continent to find his sister.
Aside from that, there was also the Nine Wells of Time, which was said to show a person his past and future. Alex was truly curious about this and wanted to know what it could possibly show him.
However, while these two things were fun places to go to, they weren't essential for him at the moment.
The place he really had to go to was one he had been to already. So, after contemplating it for over a day, Alex went back to his aunt and let her know about his thoughts on leaving.
"You want to leave? Already?" she asked worriedly. "But it's only been a month since you came back."
"I know, but I need to grow stronger," he said. "So, I'm planning to return back to the Ancient Battlefield."
"Do you have to?" she asked.
Alex shrugged. "I don't see what else I can do right now," he said. "As far as I know, it will open up in half a month again, so I want to go there. Actually, why don't you come with me? Surely you can train there too right?"
Liz thought for a bit and sighed. "I can't. Now that I think about it, you should go there actually. I will be leaving here for a while too, so you will just be alone," she said.
"You're leaving?" Alex was surprised. "Where are you going?"
"To an island in the Forever Isles. Master will take me there and help me train in real combat. Until now, I'm only ever fought in tournaments and such, so she wants me to learn it for real now."
"Oh," Alex thought. "How long will you be gone for?"
"I don't think there's an exact number to that yet, but I should be there for a few months at least," she said. "Maybe even a year or more."
"I see," Alex said. "Then I will go to the Ancient Battlefield again. When will you be leaving?"
"In a few days," she said. "You should speak with my master and the sect master to let them know you're leaving too."
"I will do that," Alex said. He went over to speak to the old woman and the sect master, who after a bit of hesitation agreed to let him leave.
They wanted him to take a few people with him, but Alex refused. He didn't want an entourage with him when he trained to become stronger.
Once they accepted the fact that he was leaving for the Ancient Battlefield soon, Alex returned to his room and prepared himself to go back.
He found soon enough that there was about a week remaining until the Ancient Battlefield opened again. There was far less time than he had expected there to be.
4 days later, Alex said goodbye to his aunt who was taken away by her master to train and become stronger. Now that she was gone, Alex had no more reason to stay behind in this sect anymore.
After staying there for one more day, Alex made his slow journey north. He called both Pearl and Whisker out so that they could enjoy the scenery as well.
Alex took careful notice of all the beauty in the Northern Continent, one that he had missed because he had to speed up to go everywhere.
Pearl loved flying on his own, and Whisker was slowly learning to do so. With a True realm cultivation base, he was more than strong enough to fly on his own. Still, since he had no proper practice before, Alex took his time letting Whisker fly slowly.
There was a whole day before the battlefield opened up, and since it was so close to them, Alex was taking the utmost time possible.
However, even slow, the distance was truly small, and as such, he arrived close to the Ancient Battlefield half a day before it was to open.
Alex looked at his own clothing and frowned. He still wore black robes and a white mask, and while it had become his identity, he didn't want to be surrounded by people that wanted to do nothing but talk to him.
He thought of changing his clothes but decided not to. It wasn't like he could always run away from his own fame. At some point, he had to accept it and instead use it for himself.
Alex stayed away from the gate as more and more people started gathering in a bunch.
He could hear the occasional chime coming from the ringing bells inside the battlefield, letting people know that it was time for them to leave.
Half a day later, the gates opened and thousands of people rushed out of it. Alex saw them leave, and finally, the people that were gathered outside saw their chances to enter.
Alex saw the horde of people enter and finally, he too went over to enter.
"You will have to try and survive it, okay? Even if it hurts, you have to fight back," Alex said.
Whisker nodded with a firm expression and readied himself. Pearl walked freely by his side, not caring much for whatever was happening around him.
As they entered, Alex felt the familiar feeling of slowed-down time as Air, aura, and everything in between refused to move on their own accord.
'Everything that was here during the battle was affected by the slowed-down time,' Alex thought to himself.
Whisker flinched from the aura, but unlike last time, he could handle it. The intent made his head hurt as well, but as Alex had said, he tried and fought back against it.
They were in the area that was supposed to be without much aura and intent, but that was still too strong for Whisker.
"Train the best you can," Alex said. "If it gets too strong, just go back to your space, okay?"
Whisker nodded and put on a fighting face this time as he told Alex to move forward. Alex chuckled and the three of them went ahead.
Alex stayed away from any place with a strong aura. This time around, he was freely using his spiritual sense on the ground area as he looked at every place he should not go for the sake of Whisker.
As he did, he started thinking about what place he should go to after Whisker was done in a few days.
"Should we return to the gorge with the sword cut?" Alex asked. "You need to learn the Dao of Sharpness too, right?"
"No," Pearl answered him through his spiritual sense. "I already learned the Dao of Sharpness."
"What? When?" Alex asked.
"In the mountain, while you were busy learning your big dao," Pearl said.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Alex asked. He was astounded that Pearl managed to keep this from him for over a month.
"Well… you never tell me everything you learn. So I thought I should do the same too," Pearl said.
"I…" Alex hesitated. "Fair enough, but you need to let me know these things, okay?"
"Okay," Pearl said.
"Right then… so maybe we should skip on the gorge for now and go to the next place," Alex said. "I do want to learn some more space dao."
