Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

There was a chance that the Sky God soldier’s wings were just the result of an artifact that Alex couldn’t see. However, if that were the case, then the man’s Creation had to be something else.

And despite the situation, he hadn’t chosen to use it yet.

That led Alex to believe that his hypothesis was correct. Those wings were the Creation. But the man didn’t give any answer for him to find that out, so he could only test it directly.

If those lightning wings were his Creation, then it had to be an Independent Creation. Meaning it was a Creation that could physically manifest right from the Divine Creation realm.

That had the benefit of not needing something else to be used, but at the same time, since it was the physical manifestation of the Creation, if he were to hurt it, he would be hurting the Creation.

That would be no different than directly attacking the man’s soul and spirit.

Alex had to try.

The man threw out his whip, attacking Alex with a blinding lightning strike. Alex punched with his left hand as a means to block the attack.

At the same time, his right hand moved with the sword, targeting the man.

Space twisted around him, shrinking and distorting, curving around the man, hitting his back. With the burning power of his pseudo Sun Fire, Alex struck the man in the armor’s shoulder blade from where the wings emerged.

Both of them took damage at the same time.

While half of Alex’s left arm was blown apart, lightning scars moving up through the rest, the man fared no better. The wings weren’t protected by the armor at all, which allowed Alex’s attacks to do uninterrupted damage.

Not just that, Alex could see the man in more pain than ever before. If those wings were just the normal result of an artifact, the man wouldn’t have responded that way.

Alex smiled as that told him all he needed to know.

His arm grew back that very instant, but he didn’t move. Simply, he pointed at the man, causing a storm of powerful, nearly imperceptible Sword Qi to form around him.

The sudden appearance of all the Sword Qi floundered the man for a moment, making him think that someone else had joined the attack. However, when he noticed there was no one else but them, with the crimson beasts flying far in the distance, he knew exactly what was happening.

“Sword Heart!” he spoke in a low voice that carried no small amount of dread. Not for a single second would he have ever thought of the young man before him to have such an advanced sword skill.

Most renowned swordsmen would go their entire lives without ever reaching that stage. And yet, in just his short lifespan, this young man had done it.

The man began to wonder if trying to keep Alex alive to get the treasures in his Soul Space might not work as well as he had thought at the moment. Perhaps the right move here was to simply kill him and hope to leave an intact corpse.

So long as the corpse wasn’t too destroyed, the Soul Space would remain with the corpse. There were plenty of ways to then bring out the contents of his Soul Space later on.

Having decided as much in a split of a second, the man fought back.

The lightning wings behind his back glowed bright as they let out a massive lightning discharge that struck away the Sword Qi that were attacking it.

At the same time, the man moved forward, going past where the Sword Qi was.

Alex slowed down time, trying to keep his Sword Domain to follow along with the moving man, but he was far too quick for that. To keep using his Sword Heart, Alex would have to use a lot of his Intent, which he couldn’t due to the small size of his spiritual energy.

There was also the issue of the Blood Devil’s madness taking over him should he push it too far. So he gave up.

The man crossed his arms before him, giant crystals forming in front of him like a massive shield. With the shield, he flew toward Alex with the intention of bashing into him.

Alex flicked his wrist, distorting the space around him at the last moment, and struck down on the man as he flew past him.

The sword struck the man’s back, once again hitting his wings. Only this time, the wings were constantly discharging lightning around them, and a few of the bolts struck him through the attack.

The man tumbled through the air for a while before coming to a stop. As soon as he did, he turned around and flew back toward Alex.

Alex healed immediately, and he prepared to fight back. He was nearly done distorting the space around him when the man brought out something from his Soul Space that looked like a scroll.

He unfurled the scroll, revealing what lay inside of it. A painting.

It was a Divine-grade painting of a massive silhouette of a beast, drawn entirely in black, with a single glowing pair of eyes at the center.

’From the auction?’ Alex thought, trying to recall what the auctioneer had said. The moment he realized, he reacted.

Instantly, a tremendous attack flew out from the painting, targeting his mind.

It was a painting capable of dealing mental damage to anyone who looked into the beasts’s eyes. It could only ever be used once per battle, but in the right moment, it was a devastating attack.

Alex abandoned the spatial manipulation and focused on protecting himself. He placed his sword upside down, using the third stage of the Spiritual Providence technique.

Spiritual Sword Barrier

A small defensive barrier formed before him, made entirely of spiritual energy. With it, Alex barely managed to keep the painting from hurting him.

However, that allowed the soldier to make use of his distraction. He slammed into Alex in full force.