1610 Shang Hongxi

Alex stood where he was, trembling a little, holding onto the Mirror of Barren Truth. He knew what would happen when he activated the artifact, but even then he was quite scared he might get hurt. It was hard to remain calm in the face of an Immortal attack.

The Mirror of Barren Truth was an artifact that returned a single attack that came its way, back toward its originator. It had to be prepared in advance to do so, and Alex had prepared it with Yao Ning, by having her fill it with Immortal Qi.

Had it been anything other than Immortal Qi, the mirror would not have worked at all.

He put back the mirror and looked in the direction of Zhao Boqin, who remained still and wounded on the ground.

"Did he die?" Alex wondered, but a quick sense told him that wasn't the case at all. Instead, the man had only gotten unconscious. As for how long that would be, Alex wouldn't know.

A single 'thank you' floated into his ear before everyone else came to him, trying to ask him questions. They asked him what he did, and some even asked him what the thing he had brought out was.

He didn't answer all the questions but gave enough to quench their curiosities for now. He wondered how much else he was going to have to answer once they returned back to the valley.

On that matter, he wondered if he was even going to return to the valley in the first place. 'I doubt that's happening anymore.'

Alex noticed a few feeding Zhao Boqin something, and his wounds slowly healed. It was the man's own attack, but it sure as hell had done quite a bit of damage. Had he not been teleported away, Alex wouldn't have been surprised if he was dead.

A bit of aura flared from the side and Alex looked in the direction of the girl that was cultivating on the mountaintop. She was close to being done with the breakthrough.

"That's quite fast," one of the men next to him commented. "I wonder if we noticed it a bit too late."

Alex wondered the same as well, but he had a feeling that she was speeding it all up on her own. She had to break through as quickly as possible. She didn't have the luxury to do it any slower.

Zhao Boqin got up in a daze a few minutes later, right around the time the girl was done breaking through as well. She definitely needed to fix up her foundation a little once she was free.

Zhao Boqin was still in a daze when he noticed that the girl was done with the breakthrough and a frown formed on his face. He wanted to go challenge her, but that was when he noticed Alex and remembered what had happened.

He had nearly died to his own techniques.

He wanted to curse at him, but he held his tongue. Disagreeing with a monarch of another kingdom was one thing, but he couldn't call him a bastard or curse him even worse if he wanted to keep his head.

Bigger wars had started with smaller things. He didn't want to start a war. He didn't want to even be in a war.

The last war that took place in this world was 5 thousand years ago. He would be more than happy to keep it that way for the next 5 thousand years still.

He swallowed what he was about to speak and only scowled at Alex.

Alex was about to say something, but even before him, the girl flew out of the mountaintop, landing in the middle of them all.

She wore a blue shawl around her pink robe and stood there almost regally as she flexed her newfound cultivation base.

Everyone stirred backward out of fear. They knew she was strong. Even with her Saint Transformation 3rd realm cultivation base, she could fight people beyond her cultivation base, at nearly Saint Transformation 5th realm.

No one wanted to test her even if she had just broken through to that cultivation base. No one dared to challenge her. It was a foolish thing to even consider.

Alex saw her beautiful face up close and got the feeling that she was even more familiar somehow, although he couldn't remember where he saw her first. For some reason, he thought he saw her in the Western Continent, but that certainly wasn't the truth.

'What is this feeling?' he wondered.

"Leader," the girl spoke, her smooth voice filling the silence that was only filled by the wind brushing the grass before this. "Do you still wish to fight me?" 

Her challenge came as a surprise to everyone. After all, she surely wasn't in the condition to fight someone so strong.

But it seemed she wasn't speaking for no reason. Zhao Boqin felt a tinge of anger and a tinge of fear within him hearing her ask that question. She had all but challenged him. If she had, he couldn't have rejected.

"Screw you, Hongxi," he said with teeth gritting against each other. "Don't think you're any closer to beating me in a fair fight."

"Am I not?" she asked in a sweet tone. "Why don't you challenge me then? You can boast that you beat me."

Alex was surprised to see Zhao Boqin's face turn to a grimace and even show a hint of panic. 'Why is he so scared to fight her? They're back on the same level as before, aren't they?'

Zhao Boqin took his time to answer, and that was how long it took for Alex to realize what was happening.

'He's scared,' he thought. 'He's scared of the Immortal Qi she'll be using.'

That was the correct answer in Alex's eyes. The man had just used his Immortal Qi on him, and from the looks of it, he had used it all too. If they were to fight, it was obvious who would be the winner here.

And if he couldn't dodge and had to be instead saved by the talisman, then he would acquire another Out of Bounds, on top of the one Alex just gave him.

"Just you wait!" Zhao Boqin said through gritted teeth and turned toward Alex. He was about to say something but kept it to himself. He knew enough to not let his anger take over him right now.

But his glare told everything that he needed to. He wasn't going to let Alex alone now.

'Now I definitely can't return,' Alex thought.

As Zhao Boqin flew away, many others followed him too. Fang Yimu and Mao Yingkong remained for him to leave too, but he shook his head and they reluctantly left without him.

In the end, all that remained was just him and the girl in front of him.

"Thank you for protecting me, Your Majesty," the girl said with a small bow. "I was in a bit of a pickle there."

"I did what I thought was right," Alex said. He stared at her, trying to figure out where he had seen her before.

The girl ignored his gaze and gave a small smile in return. "I am called Shang Hongxi, Your Majesty," she said.

"You can call me Alex," Alex said.

"Oh right, you're a player," the girl said, as if just remembering. "Then you can call me by my real name as well, Your Majesty."

"Call me Sarah."