1578 Battles

Sabers were single-edged swords, usually curved, and not as heavy. As such, they forced the fighters to develop an entirely different fighting style than if they were to fight with swords.

Alex wasn't used to fighting against Sabers given how rare they were. So, he wanted to use the opportunity to see what it was like.

A fiery saber strike flew toward him like a crescent blade, the power of Saber intent within it.

Alex was restricting himself to use only Sword Intent, as such he couldn't send out a Sword slash of his own and had to directly strike down the incoming attack instead. 

On impact, the saber slash exploded in front of Alex, fortunately doing nothing to him. His body was just too strong to be damaged.

The man in front of him looked surprised and didn't immediately send out another hit. He was wary. Since he couldn't sense Alex's cultivation base, he had no way of telling just how strong he was. As such, he had to test him before deciding on how to approach this fight.

Alex had only one thought at the moment aside from learning how to fight against Sabers. Improve Sword Intent.

It was something he had learned a long time ago and realized once again only just recently.

Long ago, he had created Sword Qi which acted as if they were Sword Aura. That had been due to him not understanding how they worked, and how he had skipped through the levels due to a wrong piece of advice.

It was only later he had learned how to do it correctly. 

To create sword Intent, one had to train with the sword to a stage where they could channel their Intent through the sword.

To create Sword Qi, one had to improve Sword Intent to a sufficient level.

To create Sword Aura, one had to improve their Sword Qi, which in turn meant one had to improve their Sword Intent all that more.

So, if Alex could improve Sword Intent to a higher degree, then use that to improve his Sword Qi, and then use that to improve his Sword Aura… Wouldn't he reach the next stage with this sword?

Alex shook his head, shaking away the thoughts. 'Don't set expectations. They only lead to disappointment,' he thought to himself and focused back on the battle at hand.

The man with the saber attacked back, sending out a fiery serpent this time around. Alex struck the serpent, destroying it. And then he did nothing again.

"That's not very fun," he spoke softly. If he was to just use Sword Intent, he could only use it when attacking directly or when channeling it through another Qi-based Sword attack. 

If he wanted to use just Sword Intent, he would need to use Sword Qi, which he didn't want to use as he was focusing on just Sword Intent.

"It seems I will need your help, Pearl," Alex said with a smile. 

Pearl nodded and rushed forward, attacking the man. The man saw him coming and struck at him, but Alex appeared in between, blocking the attack, and allowing Pearl to land the hit.

He managed to hit the man squarely in the chest, but as he used no Qi, only his physical strength was what hit him. That didn't hurt the man, but that was what Alex wanted.

There was no point in ending the fight too quickly.

The man swung his saber, sending out another attack, and Alex stepped in again, blocking it. Pearl took the opportunity to attack again.

Back and forth, the duo attacked and defended as they saw fit. The man they fought was completely overwhelmed by the two of them, surprised by how ineffective his attacks were becoming.

Not a single attack he made, no matter how large or wide, never hit the beast he wanted to hit. Alex would always come in at the last second and defend him.

The man despaired, and after a few minutes of fighting, he couldn't go on for much longer. 

"I give up!" he shouted.

Pearl stopped and Alex appeared in front of him. Before he could even say anything, he felt his talisman buzz softly inside his robes.

Checking it, Alex saw that he had now received another 26 points. 'Huh? That's not bad,' he thought. Since there was no way of losing points unless you interfered in someone else's duel or rejected a duel proposed by someone else, Alex believed he would never lose any points.

This method of point systems not only discouraged one from rejecting a duel, it also encouraged one to go out looking for new ones.

Alex heard many people shout out their challenge to him at once, and his talisman buzzed again. He brought it out to check who it was and noticed one man who raised his talisman happily.

"My challenge went through!" he shouted out loud. The others could only move back in disappointment.

Alex looked at the man and his cultivation base of Saint Soul's 1st realm. It would be a slightly challenging fight, but he doubted he would lose.

The fight began and they went on for a while. The man was strong, his power exceeding the Saint Soul 1st realm that Alex sensed he had. However, due to how strong Alex's body cultivation was, he could match that strength just barely.

Pearl fought as well, using both Qi and body this time around as even both of them would not hurt the man at all. 

The man fought to the best of his ability, and multiple times he could find himself getting close catching Alex off guard when he wasn't ready to defend himself. But somehow Alex kept not taking any damage.

On the contrary, Pearl found almost no openings to attack this man. He was only in the Saint Foundation realm, and the man he was up against was in the Saint Soul realm. The difference was too big for him to keep up. 

As the fight went on, it devolved into being just Alex defending against the man with little place for Pearl to step in, and so he just stayed out of it entirely.

It was apparent it was going to take him weeks if not months to improve even the tiniest amount. He just had to keep on doing the same thing until he was satisfied.

The fight lasted for 15 more minutes, with Alex keeping the fight going on for as long as he could.

His opponent quickly realized that didn't have a chance at winning at all. No matter how much he fought, the fight was never going to end. Alex was going to continue using him to train himself.

The man realized he wasn't going to get anywhere with this fight. In the end, he was forced to give up.

Alex was surprised when the match ended. He only realized it was over because his talisman buzzed and he gained 31 points. "Oh, thanks for fighting with me," he said with a smile.

The man looked pained at the fact that he had to go on for such a long time just to lose. He nodded toward Alex and walked away.

Alex turned around, looking for someone to instantly ask him for a duel when he realized that he wasn't being challenged. He wondered if they were distracted by something else at first, but a moment later he understood what was up.

They were hesitant.

There weren't many around him by that point. Just 7 or so, and each of their cultivation base was lower than the man he had just fought. It wouldn't be easy to get them to fight.

Alex looked at a girl with a cultivation base of Saint Core 5th realm. He pointed to the girl. "Do you want to fight me?" he asked. 

To his surprise, the mere act of asking her made the talisman buzz. 'I didn't challenge,' Alex thought, but there was nothing to do. 'I guess I'll have to be careful then.'

He sighed and looked a the girl who seemed surprised by her own talisman buzzing.

The girl looked around at first, confused, then was a little scared. "Umm… I don't think I can win," she said.

"If you can defeat him, I will count that as winning too," Alex said, gesturing to Pearl as he spoke.

The girl looked at Pearl and then back. "Umm…" she gulped. "You won't interfere?"

"If I do, even if I win, I will give you the pill," Alex said.

The numerous people got excited and some even thought of sneaking in to challenge before the girl got to, but didn't.

The girl contemplated on the offer, checking Pearl to see how strong he was, and remembered how he had to step aside when the real battle had taken place earlier.

She saw no reason to refuse.

"I'll do it," she said.

The challenge was accepted.

Alex stepped aside, letting Pearl be the one who fought. Coming to this secret realm hadn't just been for him, but also for Pearl. He had to let Pearl fight his fill. 

He needed that at least to grow.

It had been a while since the both of them had the chance to train like this. Alex understood that towards the start, it would only be the weaker ones that would challenge him, and later once the weaker ones left, he would get to fight the stronger ones.

As such, it was okay for him to give Pearl the chance to fight right now.

Alex just sat by the grass and watched as the fight went on.