Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex arrived at another sect located at the Northsword’s bend. The river took a left turn, and would take another right turn further down the way, before heading straight into the Core region of the desert.

This deep in, all sects that were located here and further were far too strong for him to win. In fact, there were times when he didn’t even get to fight the strongest and would have to contend with just the second strongest.

There were only so many sects ahead of him before he had to move away from the river and head deeper into the desert.

The sect located here was called the Black Heart sect, and many of their disciples had come out to watch the fight that was going to take place very soon.

One of the elders of the sect strode forward, staring down at Alex.

“So you’re the Evening Swordsman, huh?” he asked.

“I am called that among many others,” Alex answered. The names continued piling up for him the longer he traveled through the desert.

“I hear you give away Elixir, but we in the Black Heart sect have no need for it. We purchase it directly from the Endless Night sect itself. Why should we get it from you?” he asked.

Alex had long since noticed people’s unexcited reactions to the Elixir he gave away, but those people had still decided to fight him in the end. He had lost more times than he had won, so he had kept on continuing.

Here, however, it appeared that things were worse.

“Because it’s free,” Alex answered after some thinking. “I’m sure you pay thousands of Sunhearts for what I am willing to give you for free. Do you not want it?”

The elder watched him for a long time before nodding slowly.

“Tell me the clause of your battle again,” the man said. “If it is fair, I shall indulge you.”

“There are no clauses really. I simply wish to fight anyone who can defeat me. If they can, I give them a jar of Elixir. I do ask that you use a weapon though, since I’ll be using a sword myself.”

“That is alright with me,” the elder said, bringing out his own sword. “But what happens should I injure you?”

“Then you win,” Alex said. “Although, I will say that you will find it difficult to injure me. I do suggest that you use the help of your sect’s battle array if you find it difficult to continue.”

The elder chuckled finally. “A bold one, aren’t you? To suggest that an elder of the Black Heart sect such as I would require assistance to fight someone like you. Fine, then I shall show you the might of our sect.”

There was no more back and forth. The elder waited while Alex charged for him. The two clashed, sword ringing against sword, as they quickly fell into a close combat.

The elder frowned, surprised at just how strong Alex was. He had expected all of Alex’s advice and threats to be hollow, but it seemed he had truly underestimated him.

He had heard about everyone else using their battle array to fight Alex, and that had sounded exaggerated to him, but now he could tell that the news did Alex no justice at all.

The man was stronger than anyone else he had fought. Perhaps stronger than even the sect leaders.

That only made the man wonder just who Alex was.

Alex was surprised as well. After months of fighting many people with his sword, Alex’s Sword Intent now held the strength of Immortal Transcendent 5th realm. His Sword Qi was stronger than that at Immortal Transcendent 6th realm, which was what he had been using.

However, the elder who fought him right now was much stronger than that. He was easily at the later stages of the Immortal Transcendent realm, perhaps around the 8th realm in terms of strength.

Since his sword alone wasn’t enough to fight him, Alex had been using his body too. With his Immortal Spirit 3rd realm body, he could easily overwhelm the elder if he chose to.

This allowed Alex to be weaker than the elder while not losing immediately as well. It was an interesting situation.

The elder seemed to know Sword Qi as well, and he fought against Alex’s Sword Qi. The two fought for some time before the elder struggled to keep fighting. Alex’s body strength was overwhelming, so he now knew that he had to do what he had mocked earlier.

He ordered the gathered disciples and elders to form the battle array.

The crowd was shocked by the development. This elder was not the strongest person within their sect, but he was easily one of the strongest, with maybe 2 other people above him.

The fact that he had been pushed to being forced to use the array meant that the rumors they had heard about Alex were all correct.

The group quickly gathered and used their array.

“What the…”

Alex felt the effect of the array landing on him almost instantly. Like a bright red flower in the middle of a green garden, it had no subtlety at all. He could feel it pressing against him, against his body.

Alex suddenly found any movement strenuous.

He had been through many arrays, some of which made him slower by affecting his perception of things or weaker by inducing a sense of fatigue into his body directly.

However, never had he sensed a formation so simple and yet so effective. Like a mountain had suddenly been placed on top of him, Alex struggled to move.

This was not Intent affecting his body from the inside, but rather from the outside. Hundreds of disciples and elders together had come to pile their Intent directly on top of him to burden him with weight created directly through their Intent.

Alex could only imagine how difficult this must be for them. He turned toward the elder and shook his head at having to use the formation.

But then, the elder turned to Alex and nodded as he warned him.

He was going to attack.