695 A Few Friendly Faces
The remainder of the fight lasted quite a bit. Alex fought like he was weaker than he actually was, which to the others seemed normal given his cultivation base was only around True Lord 2nd Realm.
He didn't use Qi or Sword Qi during this fight and kept the attacks only to his physical body.
He did send out slashes from time to time to vent out his Qi that was stagnating, but most of those attacks never landed on the salamander. Intentionally of course.
Finally, after using his shield to block the attack and using his sword to make numerous cuts throughout the salamander, he managed to kill it while taking no damage himself.
"Phew!" Alex wiped the non-existed sweat from his brows and heaved a deep sigh in relief.
"Alchemist Yu, that was amazing," Liang Qiu said. "How did you learn to fight like that?"
"Oh, I learned it from the senior who I came here with last time," Alex said.
"You are quite strong for an alchemist," Han Daiyu said as she stared at the salamander.
"To think you managed to kill something that was 4 realms— what are you doing?" she asked suddenly.
Alex had turned around and started using his sword to carve open the black and yellow salamander.
"Oh, I'm just dismantling the corpse. These beasts are quite good as alchemy ingredients, you know?" he said.
"Is that so?" Liang Qiu asked. "What sort of pill can you make with these parts?"
"I don't know," Alex said simply.
"You… don't know? Then why are you taking these beast parts?" she asked.
"Because I'm going to find out what pills I can make with these," he said.
"So you are going to find out a recipe from these?" Han Daiyu asked.
"Precisely," Alex said and continued dismantling it all. Finally, once he got everything, he placed it in his storage bag and turned around.
"Let's get moving. We need to find the willow tree as soon as we can," Alex said and the three started moving.
As they went along, either more monsters popped up which they were forced to fight, or Alex found a rare ingredient which he was forced to fight something to get.
Either way, they fought a lot.
Alex got to fight most of the time, but there were times when the beast was so strong that he couldn't possibly win against it without showing off more of his skills which he didn't want to do.
So, instead, he let the girls do the fighting since they were stronger than him.
Han Daiyu's fighting style was rather simple. She hit things until it stopped moving. Her hammer, which was naturally heavy, was enough to kill most beasts with a single blow.
When she activated her physique, her strength would become so massive that she could probably lift 5 of such hammers without any problem.
Other than that, she would use her Earth techniques to use ranged attacks and then kill the beasts.
When Alex had seen her attack the door back in the demon realm, he was mistaken into thinking she could only attack at melee range, but now he realized how incredibly stupid he was being.
No one in their right mind would train one of their best to have such an obvious vulnerability. Han Daiyu had more in her arsenal than Alex originally believed her to have.
Liang Qiu on the other hand was closer to what Alex thought Han Daiyu would be.
Her mastery of the spear had reached well into Spear Qi and each one of her attacks sent out slashes of Spear Qi toward the enemy.
Unlike his own, Liang Qiu's spear Qi had developed to the point that each of her spear Qi was in the shape of a spearhead.
'I need to train my Sword Qi until it starts looking more like swords all the time,' he thought to himself.
Liang Qiu's mastery of the spear had left him breathless. The way she moved with it was like the spear was an extension of herself.
Each one of her attacks was precise and accurate, and it was never less nor more than what the enemy needed to die.
Unfortunately, Liang Qiu didn't use any of her other skills, so Alex didn't get to see the full ability of an elite from an elite sect.
Even after night fell, they continued searching for the tree, but it didn't seem like it was going to be anywhere near here.
Alex came across a few places that looked familiar, but he would have to go through a year's worth of memory to understand exactly what route he took to get here.
As such, directly finding the willow's location was truly very hard.
Other than that, Alex was also searching for something else in the poison swamp.
He had come here with 3 objectives in total. The first one was their collective objective of finding the willow tree.
The second one was his training to breakthrough in his cultivation.
Finally, the third one was to find ingredients with a high concentration of Yin in them.
He had already used up the ones he had taken from here and his body was starting to heat up once again.
It was still in the starting phase, but it was getting harder and harder to maintain. Soon, it would certainly reach a level where it would be impossible.
Alex feared that day more than he thought he should.
The next day went by the same as well. Since the land they had to tread was so big, they still hadn't found a willow tree at all.
Alex remembered seeing only one tree, so he was starting to fear that there really was just one tree.
Finding one single tree in a sea of toxic fog, poisonous plants, and venomous beasts was going to take longer than he had expected.
Plus, the girls were forced to stop from time to time to recharge the artifact that they had been using.
Every 6 or so hours, they needed to replace the spirit stones inside of it and that took about 15 minutes out of their day every day.
On the second night, Alex finally felt like he was ready. He had fought all day yesterday and today, and his body felt ready to breakthrough.
So, he told the girls and they agreed to it. Besides, they had been walking around for nearly 2 days now and wanted rest.
Alex sat beside a naked tree with the girls also cultivating on either side. They had set up a barrier formation around them, so they could safely cultivate inside of it.
With how long it had been since Alex had broken through and how ready his body was, it didn't even take him a full rotation of his Qi to simply break through to the next realm.
Liang Qiu and Han Daiyu who were next to him looked at him in shock as he had broken through the moment they sat down.
'So fast,' they thought and wanted to ask questions, but decided not to when they saw that he was still mid cultivation.
Half the night went quietly, but then around midnight, Alex heard something slam down on the ground.
It was so fast his spiritual sense didn't even see the object enter his senses. When the two objects finally did land, he realized that it was Shangguan Quan and Han Hongqi who had come down from the ship that was hovering in the sky.
Before either of the 3 of them could ask what was going on, Shangguan Quan's cold voice spoke to someone in front of them.
"Fellow Daoist, please go away from here. These children are under our protection," he shouted from beyond the barrier.
Han Hongqi brought out a hammer of his own as he slowly circulated his Qi, activating his physique.
"Don't mind my presence, fellow Daoists. I am not here to hurt your juniors," A voice came from far away.
Alex heard the voice and something about it gave him a familiar feeling.
"Then you won't mind going away, right?" Han Hongqi asked.
"I am here to speak to that junior there," the voice said and Alex finally remembered who it was.
Without hesitation, Alex stood up and walked past the barrier to bow into the darkness.
"Greetings senior," he said to the newly arrived figure.
Slowly, through the marsh slithered something purple with 6 bright slitted eyes. It was the Three-headed Hydra.
"I thought you had already left. I see you've returned, young human," the Hydra spoke to Alex's mind.
"Just for a few days, senior," Alex said "we're here to find something. Once we do we'll leave."
"Hmm," the Hydra stuck its tongue out. "Is senior here?"
"No, I'm afraid I haven't seen him in 3 years," Alex said.
"I see," the Hydra said. "Well, doesn't seem like you'll need him."
The Hydra looked towards the two Saints next to Alex who held curious looks on their faces.
"So, what do you want here?" the Hydra asked. "You're in my domain right now. If it is here, I will give it to you."
"I'm looking for a willow tree," Alex said and started explaining everything he knew about the tree from its looks, shape, and size, all the way to what its surrounding area was like and what beasts lived there.
"Hmm, that sounds like a location in that direction," one of the Hydra's heads turned to point in a certain direction.
"If you go there, you can find it," it said.
"Is that so, thank you for your assistance, senior," Alex said.
"Don't worry. Just give my greetings to senior," the Hydra said as it slithered away, leaving the confused group.
Alex looked back at the group with a happy expression. "It looks like we know where to go now."
