631 Advancements in Sword

The Spiritual Sword, from Alex's observation, did just one thing. It disrupted the flow of Qi through one's meridians.

Alex couldn't tell if it slowed down the movement of Qi or made the meridians squeeze together so that not much Qi to move through it, but it always made what came out in the end vastly weaker than what the opponent was capable of.

This only lasted for a few seconds or so before they usually got back their ability to fight, but that was enough to take care of most enemies.

Alex took out his sword and send a barrage of attacks at the monkey who couldn't put up any defense. Despite the fiery armor, it was still hard to cut the monkey with his strength.

But slowly as more and more Qi was lost, it became easier to cut. The monkey, despite getting back its strength, couldn't produce any of the explosives balls of fire anymore.

A few minutes later, it finally died.

Alex breathed in and out, trying to get rid of the fatigue. He had to use his entire strength to kill a monkey that could barely protect itself, and it still took so long.

He felt a little angry at himself even. He quickly ignored the thought and pulled out some spirit stones.

The spirit stones were all dull and without energy, and were nothing more than simple translucent rocks.

Alex used his golden claws to carve a chunk out of the spirit stones and used that to store the blood of the BlueFlame monkey for now.

Since he had no vials, he had to make do with what he could. Then, he cut the monkey into many pieces, doing a not so good a job in it, and took whatever he could.

Once he took all of the mangoes, he looked at the surroundings and all the destroyed trees.

'There were some ingredients there. Well, it's all destroyed now,' he thought.

Alex put everything into his storage ring aside from his sword. His sword he stared at for a minute.

From being a young man who had never even seen a sword, to being someone who could beat a True Lord 6th realm beast, he had obviously come a long way.

In his journey, he had gone from learning how to use his sword to learning how to use his intent.

However, the journey wasn't over yet. No, it was only beginning. For the next phase of his journey, he would have to advance his sword skill to the point where he could use Sword Qi.

For that, he would have to live and die by the sword.

* * * * * * *

A long time passed. As for how long, Alex wasn't sure. A week would sometimes feel like 2 days. A day would sometime feel like 2 weeks.

A fight would end as soon as it started, or it would drag on forever to make him feel completely unable to grasp the passing of time.

Not to mention, cultivation alone would make him lose his sense of time, almost all the time.

During these times, he had done nothing but fight with his sword. He would use his sword to solve any and every problem.

If a fight was easy, he would beat it with his sword. If it was hard, he would run away.

Even when there were times he could easily defeat a beast were he to simply use his Explosion skills or his mental attacks, he still chose to use his sword and make it hard for himself.

If he couldn't beat it, he would then just run away and come back later.

If he couldn't run away, he let the world devour himself and send him somewhere else.

He had to use this technique more than once, and more than once he had ended up in more trouble than not.

One time, he had even entered the lair of a Saint realm snake. Alex was sure he would die at that time, but fortunately, the snake didn't attack him.

It only told him to leave and never go back there again.

'Shen Jing must have given them instruction,' he had thought.

At first, he had been surprised that Shen Jing's words even held value to these beasts given that they were both in the Saint Realm. However, when he realized that the Saint realm, just like the True realm and Self-Tempering realm, must have multiple minor realms as well, he understood why they would do that.

After all, even the Saint realm Emperor had been scared of the Saint realm beasts from the Beasts' realm. So, he didn't think about them for long.

It wasn't the Saint beast he had to worry about, then. It was the True King and True Emperor realm beast. Fortunately, they were just as rare to come by as well.

In the past however many months he had been here, he had seen about 2 dozen or so True King beasts, most of which didn't bother him, and he didn't bother them either.

As for True Emperor beasts, he could count them in his one remaining hand.

During this time, his strength had also grown by a large amount. Since he was only focused on fighting and cultivating, his cultivation had grown to True Master 5th realm.

However, that wasn't what had made Alex happy. The thing that got him happier was his advancement with the sword.

He hadn't yet reached Sword Qi, as that was still elusive to him, but he could feel himself getting closer and closer.

From time to time, while fighting, he could see a sword-shaped Qi or two split off from his white Sword Intent outline. From what Alex remembered, there had to be many more such sword-shaped Qi to be around him for it to be considered having learned Sword Qi.

Also, Du Yuhan had said something about Sword Qi having the personality of the user. Du Yuhan wanted to cut down everything in front of him with his sword, and that had manifested a sword Qi that gave him unimaginable cutting power.

'What is my own personality then?' Alex wondered. He couldn't be sure. If he had to before, he would call himself kind and gentle.

Could that be used to explain the person he had become now? Obviously not. The amount of blood on his hand was not something someone kind and gentle would have.

He was… different. He had changed.

Alex sighed. 'There's no point in thinking about it now, is there?' he thought. He would soon learn it on his own.

Alex opened his eyes on top of a tree crown. He looked around to see the wilted leaves and slightly darkened wood beneath him.

He couldn't help but sigh. Last few months, his body had gotten worse and worse, to the point where his Yang energy couldn't be contained any longer with the Yin technique.

Unless he decided to sit down and cultivate the Yin technique for days on end, there was no way to control his yang body now.

It was also troublesome with how helpful his Yang body was. Most of the beasts below the True Master realm scurried away whenever he came close to them.

True Lord beasts and above were the only ones who seemed to not be afraid of him now. That was helpful. True Master beasts were no match for him after all.

At True Master 5th realm, his attacks dealt about the same damage as his body, if not higher.

As for his sword, it was close to dealing damage about the same as his body too. Very soon, his body would start falling behind.

'Sigh, if only I knew of a way to increase my body's strength too,' he thought.

His master hadn't lied at all when he had told him that most body cultivators abandoned their path after a certain point because cultivating the body became too hard and resource-intensive.

Alex wished he knew what resources could even do such a thing.

As he walked along the side of the mountain, no beasts came up to him thanks to his yang aura.

When he reached the top, the wind blew at him, bringing a sour and pungent smell along with it.

'What is that smell?' he wondered. He couldn't see anything ahead with his spiritual sense that would produce such a smell, so he decided to go ahead and check it out himself.

Just as he was about to walk ahead, a voice drifted to his mind and said, "STOP!"