1714 Underwater Battles

Submerged in the coldness of the ocean water, Alex felt a sense of calmness that was hard to find outside of the water.

A sense of calmness and a sense of lurking danger.

The dark water made it feel as though there could be a strong beast right next to him and he would never know. But of course, that was just a feeling. There was nothing around him.

He delved deeper into the water, Midnight already in his hand, and started searching for something to fight. Unfortunately, it seemed that he would have to move further away into deeper territories to find what he was looking for.

The weight of tons and tons of water above Alex put pressure on him that inhibited his movements to a certain extent. His movements were ever so sluggish and his speed ever so slower.

He was sure that the water would also cause his attacks to become slightly weaker just as it already had affected his Spiritual sense. What should have allowed him to sense 10 kilometers around him, now only allowed him a little less than 9 kilometers.

It wasn't a terrible suppression, but it was certainly there, and it was likely that it would get worse the deeper he went into the ocean.

Alex was a few kilometers away from any island and more than a kilometer underwater when the first Saint Beast decided to attack him.

It was a giant fish with 8 razor-sharp fins on either side of its body, a giant grooved fin on its back, and a tail that a nearly three times as large in proportion as a regular fish. At Saint Core 5th realm, the fish wasn't much of a danger to Alex.

Alex did not know the name of this fish. Aquatic beasts were outside the scope of what he had learned in his life. So, he didn't even know if the beast was supposed to be aggressive or not, or if it had some weaknesses.

Alex watched the fish get close to him, and while he knew the fish could speak if it chose to, he was still ready to fight.

All 8 of the fish's fins glowed red all of a sudden and the water around him boiled hot red. Then, all 8 fins struck out at him, as if slashes from a blade.

Instead of defending, Alex willed the fire in those attacks to go out. His Intent went into work and using the True Fire Dao, he fought against the Intent of the fish to wrestle away its control over the fire to easily get rid of it.

The fish was surprised for just a single second before Alex sent out a single sword slash with Sword Qi that instantly cut it in half, not only killing the body but also the soul.

Without a moment's delay, Alex teleported right next to the fish and quickly stored it in his storage ring before moving on.

The Saint Core realm fish had just been a piece of stone blocking his path. Kicking it away, he could continue down his path to find better fish to kill. He was sure he would find so many.

Alex fought 3 more beasts. A fish, a sea mantis, and a snake. Throughout each of those fights, he used nothing but just Sword Qi. Not because he wanted to, but because that was his only choice.

On one hand, the beasts were too weak for him to use anything else. He could just fly next to them and cut them too, but using Sword Qi at least made for some sort of training.

On the other hand, he was still very much close to the surface considering how much deeper the ocean was. He couldn't arouse suspicion among the soldiers that happened to fly above him.

It was only once he was much deeper that Alex was forced to use more than just his Sword.

It happened when Alex came across a nasty-looking fish with bulbous eyes and an appendage that grew out of its head carrying what looked like a red ruby. It even glowed ever so slightly.

Alex felt some sort of spiritual attack whenever he stared at the ruby. Had his spiritual strength been weaker than the Saint Soul realm, he would have most definitely been affected by it.

'What a pretty jewel,' Alex still thought. 'I should get—' He quickly shook his head.

"Is this how you get your enemies?" he spoke directly to the beast. It had been staring back at Alex for a good few seconds, probably wondering if this was a favorable fight for it.

"You weren't caught? You must be strong, unlike what your cultivation base suggests. Are you hiding your aura?" the dangerous fish spoke back into Alex's mind. " You'll make for good food."

The fish's Saint Transformation 1st realm cultivation base flared in an instant and it attacked. A sprout of water jetted out from in front of it, making its way to Alex like a great current.

Alex could not fight this with just his sword, so he was forced to use his Qi as well. He instantly applied the All Swirling Elemental Shield to block the attack and then sent a Heavenly Static Slash to attack the fish.

The lightning bolt struck the fish instantly, leaving behind a path of bubbles from the water that was instantly boiled by the lightning bolt.

The place where the fish was struck glowed red hot and the fish let out a screech. Even as Saint Transformation's 1st realm, the fish was still a weakling to Alex. At least, it hadn't died in a single attack.

Alex moved closer and stabbed the fish with Midnight, before ripping out a chunk of its body as he pulled it out at an angle. The fish gave one last cry before dying.

However, it wasn't dead just yet.

The soul that was in the fish's body slowly appeared with a blue luster to it, seemingly confused about the situation. The souls weren't yet connected with the body enough to know what was happening immediately upon the body's death.

Alex swung his sword and cut the soul in half and watched as the blue light dimmed and the soul dissipated into nothing. He wasted no time in taking this fish's body back into his Storage ring either.

Once the fish was dead, Alex went to search for another one to fight, but to his surprise there were none. Weaker Saint beasts had realized that there was a new boss in the area, so they kept out of Alex's way.

As for the stronger ones, there were none. Any strong beasts set up their own territory, and from the looks of things, the beast Alex just killed had taken up a large portion of its territory.

If Alex wanted to find more beasts, he had to move elsewhere.

Alex felt a small buzz in his Soul Space and quickly looked in to find the talisman that Zhou Linfan had given him had received a message. Alex read into it with no time wasted.

"Heads up! Several soldiers are flying toward a single location in the sea. I think this might be you."

"Oh!" Alex thought and immediately hid his aura. Not only that, he also used his Yang Qi to cover up his body in a way that Alex felt everything around him almost burning.

There were even bubbles forming around his body from the head his body was producing. Thankfully, the water wasn't literally boiling or that would have given away his location more clearly.

Just as Alex was thinking that, a wave of spiritual sense passed around him. It never actually passed through him as anything that did get too close to him would burn up and disappear.

To everyone who was using their spiritual sense at the moment, all they would see was a small blank spot in their sense, and that was if they noticed it in the first place at all.

Unless they knew he was down here, he doubted they would care enough to know that there was a missing piece in the area they had scanned.

Alex waited in the water for a long time before the spiritual senses started pulling again. 'God! How many did the Emperor send after me? He should know nothing more than the fact that I'm a cripple too. Does he want to steal my storage ring or what?' he thought.

He waited until all the senses were gone and then waited some more before moving once again.

This location no longer had any more beasts for him to fight, so Alex would now have to move much further away. There was no time to waste.

He flew in chose a direction at random and went in that direction for a long time, hoping to find a worthy fight. Along the way, he found many beasts that wanted to fight him and eat him, none that were capable of even touching him.

Alex didn't ignore them of course as they were good sources of blood and cores. He killed what he could find. A fish, a snake, a crab, it didn't matter.

After flying for some time, he entered what he thought was another beast's territory. There had been a significant lack of fish swimming around for a short time now.

'Let's see who is here then,' Alex thought and let out his spiritual sense in all directions. When he did so, he noticed something that made his jaw drop.

'It can't be…' he thought and used his senses to look at it closer. It really was it.

'It really is a Fire Coral.'