1084 Core Explosion
Qiu Hanyu tapped her shoes on the floor of the stone platform with impatience. She looked at the 23 people beside her and couldn't help but be even more frustrated the longer it went.
"Just where the hell are they? Did they forget?" she asked. Her annoyance made the other people not want to answer just so they wouldn't be caught in her anger.
Harry looked around and through the open door that lead to the secret realm and was a little worried. 'Where is he?' he wondered.
It wasn't just Alex that was missing, there was one of the four people from the Alchemy association that had entered with them as well but had yet to come out.
The sect leader entered the portal for a second and spread her spiritual sense all around to check on Alex and the other person, but no matter how far she spread it, neither Alex nor the other person was in her vicinity.
With the lack of knowledge of where they were, she couldn't even go away to check it. She especially couldn't because she was the only one capable of opening the gate on the outside. If she were to be stuck here, it was likely that they would forever be stuck in this land.
She walked back out and checked the remaining period of time before the gate closed. "Just 2 more minutes," she said. "Goddamn, these two. They better not make me have to open the gate afterward."
She waited for a minute more when suddenly she noticed something. There was a violent change in aura somewhere in the secret realm that she could sense.
It wasn't just her. All the saints that were standing there could feel it.
"Someone's fighting," she said with a darkened expression. "Are those two in a fight?"
She wanted to go in and check, but the portal was going to close at any moment now.
"I'll go in and check," Harry said.
The sect leader frowned for a bit and nodded. "We'll have to open the gate anyway it seems. You should—"
Suddenly, a massive sound came from inside that shook the very space around them. The ground shuddered and so did the cultivators standing on it.
The True realm cultivators fell to the ground in fear at the aura that was just released, and even the elders couldn't help but show shock on their faces.
"That…" the sect leader spoke with eyes wide open. "That was a Core Explosion! Someone exploded their Golden Core."
If someone had to go so far as to explode their golden core, then things were serious. And if someone was caught in the vicinity, she didn't expect anyone to be able to make it out alive after that.
They all stood in shock, unable to say a word, and in their shock and hesitancy, the gate closed.
The sect leader finally spoke. "Get everyone out of here," she said in a serious tone. "I will have to go in and check."
* * * * * * * *
All colors from around the man vanished all of a sudden as it was consumed by the man's body. Alex saw the shift in color and was surprised, wondering what he had just done.
However, at the next moment, his vision exploded with color again, horribly bright color.
Alex felt the shockwave hit him the moment he saw the color. Before he could do anything else, the remainder of the explosion hit him.
The blast shot Alex into the sky, half dazed, half unconscious. Terrible pain flared all over his body with even Alex unsure of where they originated.
A few seconds later, he hit the ground with a massive impact, creating a small crater.
Alex tried to move his body, but all he could do was involuntarily cough up blood. He tried to move his arm, but neither of his arms was there with him.
His right leg was torn from the knee as well.
He used his spiritual sense to check the rest of the damage and was horrified by what he saw.
Aside from the missing limb, his skin was in tatters, even muscles destroyed, with bones showing in some places like his chest.
His nose was completely destroyed with the skins on his face split at various different places, bleeding profusely.
He couldn't even if his left eye was okay or not as he couldn't even open it.
He tried to breathe, forcing his chest to move up and down. Slowly, air filled his lungs again and he coughed out more blood that was filling his chest.
Alex tried to ignore all the terrible pain and concentrated on his chest. He used his blood manipulation to try and pull the blood out of his lungs.
The blood flowed out through his throat and fell onto his chest, where it started seeping into his chest.
His breathing became easier and finally, he could focus a little more. Fortunately, his dantian wasn't hurt, so the Qi in his body started moving quickly to heal him.
His Undying Physique worked as best as it could and he started growing the part of his body that had gone missing.
Alex lay on the ground in pain while his body healed bit by bit. A few minutes later, it was finally fully healed.
He stood up from where he was and checked himself. His clothes were barely on him and most of his body parts were regrown, so he was all but naked.
His hands had blown away as well, so the ring on his finger had gone somewhere as well. Fortunately, the body parts that had been ripped off were still around in chunks, so when he used his spiritual sense, he quickly found it.
It was a kilometer away from where he was, out on a hill away from the flatland where they were fighting.
Alex called out Whisker and had him go retrieve it. At the same time, he checked his sides and saw that his storage bags hadn't taken any damage.
He sighed and looked toward the direction where the explosion had happened. That was not an explosion he had ever seen in his life before.
"That… that must have been what they call a Core Explosion," Alex thought. "He exploded the core in his dantian so he could kill me in a suicide attack."
Alex sighed once more and looked around. The blood beasts that he had brought out to corner him were dead. They were some of his best beasts and they were gone just like that.
'I will have to go get some more,' he thought. He looked around for a bit and put out his hand. Midnight flew into his grip and Alex checked it. As expected, his sword had no damage on it.
"His storage bag must have been destroyed in the explosion as well," Alex thought. "Shame, I could have learned something about the assassins."
He couldn't help but shake his head.
Whisker returned not long after and Alex ate a healing pill that was in his ring just in case. Then, he pulled out the storage bag where he was keeping the World Defying Mushroom.
Seeing that they weren't damaged during the fight, he went back to the forest to gather some more.
He left Whisker there to look around just in case he missed something. He had scanned around as well as he could, but he was definitely in shock, he hoped he really did miss something.
About 10 minutes later, he was done collecting all the mushrooms. By then, Whisker was back as well, and together they flew towards the gate in the center of the secret realm.
Alas, before he could even reach the center, he could see that the gate had already closed. He had been late.
* * * * * *
Everyone but the sect leader and a few key elders of the Flowerhall sect were on the platform outside the Forbidden Orchard.
It had taken them some time to send everyone away and prepare a spirit vein so that they could open the gate for an extended period of time.
The spirit vein that was connected to the platform would have been enough to open the gate normally, but with what they had sensed inside, they felt that they needed something stronger to keep it open for a long while.
An elder flew out of the lake and landed on the platform while rubbing the water from his face. "I've attached the extra spirit vein to the ends of the original one. We should be ready to go," he said.
"Good," the sect leader said. She then pulled out her medallion and fiddled with it for a moment to open the gate. However, right as she was about to activate, she heard a buzz to her left.
They all did.
Quickly, they turned around to look at what was making that noise, and couldn't help but be surprised to see a bit of light shining from the crack that was supposed to have fully closed.
In the slit of the closed gate, they could see a few fingers peeking through. They extended further before half of the hand was outside the slit.
The people gathered there looked in shock and were ready to take action if needed.
In the next moment, their eyes went wide in shock.
The two hands grabbed either side of the gate and pulled it apart like someone was opening a curtain. The gate was wide open and Alex walked through in a rough state.
He looked around at the elders and sect leaders that were gathered and bowed a little.
"My apologies for being late. Something had come up that needed taking care of."
