911 Ancient Battlefield
The Human language was the same as the Demon language, except it was written backward and with different letters.
So, all Alex had to do to learn it at the bare minimum was to understand the alphabet and read everything backward.
Once he was done, he could read anything in the entire world easily.
The only reason Alex had yet to learn the language was because of the skill in the Black Stele. The intention to learn the skill alone made you get hurt by the intent hidden in the stele, being able to do so would make you a clear target for the intent.
However, now that he was so far away and would take such a long time to return, Alex decided to learn the language and hone his intent with the current book he had.
It didn't take him long to finish learning the language, and so he brought out the book and opened the first page.
At the very first word, Divine, Alex's eyes narrowed as his forehead scrunched up in annoyance. Just one word and it was starting to hurt him.
"I'll read you, whether you like it or not," he thought and started reading. Wording his thoughts or even just speaking them out made it easier to form his intent as he knew exactly what he wanted to do.
Otherwise, it would've just remained vague notions in his mind that spread out his intent too thin.
Having never really read anything with Human language in it before, it took Alex an embarrassingly long time to read even just the first page in front of him.
Having never read backward before, it was just too awkward. And on top of that, the intent constantly assaulted him, making it hard to even concentrate on reading.
"You can't stop me! I will read you," Alex said what he wanted his intent to be and continued.
Slowly, but surely, he churned through the intent, reading everything on every single page.
This was the first time he read a book and understood what the words meant, rather than simply gaining an overall understanding of what was said.
The intent fought Alex, and Alex fought the intent, and after nearly 3 hours, he finished reading the entirety of the book, closing it behind him.
"Hah!" he let out a deep breath and felt his body become incredibly weak now that everything he had used up in the last 3 hours brought him mental fatigue that he had only felt after the final day of the 3-day alchemy session.
"Whoever this Hell Emperor is, he must've been an amazing figure," Alex thought. For someone who wrote a book likely many years ago, during the days of the Eternal War, his intent still flowed through the book as if no time had passed.
Alex wondered just how weakened this intent was, and if the real figure was here in front of him, would he have been able to survive a direct assault of his Intent?
Alex felt his mental fatigue grow a little too high, so he slumped back on the bed, surprising Whisker who had been in a deep focus of his own.
Alex spent a few minutes on the bed, trying to slowly heal his mind, and only got up once he felt the fatigue be at a manageable level.
Then, he started cultivating. He would cultivate for the next 3 days until the Ancient Battlefield opened up.
* * * * * *
Thousands upon thousands of people were gathered by the entrance to the Ancient battlefield, all ready to enter.
Alex saw people from the True King realm at the lowest to people at the Saint Foundation realm at the highest, standing around for the gates to open up.
He was sure there were other people here with a higher cultivation base, but if they didn't want him to find them, then he wouldn't be able to no matter how hard he tried.
Alex saw the many colors of robes, all of whom had come from all 5 different states.
He could see people whose upbringing hadn't been very good and he could see people who were born with a golden spoon in their mouth.
He could see people who looked like they had never found happiness in life, and some who had only ever been sad when their elders were a few days late at providing what they had asked for.
He could see people who, just like him, looked around at the massive crowd, alone by themselves, while he could also see people who had already started making friends in the crowd.
All in all, they were all different types of people, but they were all going to enter the same place as him.
Alex turned around, readying himself as well.
Disciples from all 5 ancient sects stood outside the barrier gate with tokens in their hands that were required to open the gate.
"Please step back, everyone," one of the disciples said. "Let the ones coming out come out first. You will have the entire day to enter."
Once people backed off a bit, they all used the token they had at once and the gate opened.
The barrier was dispelled and the people on the other side that weren't seen until now started walking out one by one.
Many of them walked to their friends and families to reunite after months or even years of being inside, and many simply went on their own way.
However, while watching them, Alex saw a few people looking at the gate, hoping to see someone that didn't appear at all.
At the people walked out, they still waited and Alex knew that they understood what had happened inside.
The person they were waiting for could have decided to stay inside another 6 months, or he could have just been late and not made it to the gate.
However, there was another possibility that was extremely tragic.
It was possible that the person they were waiting for had died somehow. It could've been the intents and powers inside the battlefield, or it could have been people imitating intents and powers to kill people without being found out.
Alex was quite surprised at the number of disciples from the Ancient sects that were walking out of the battlefield. It seemed thousands of them entered each time.
Once the people coming out dropped from a flood to a trickle, all the people that were waiting to enter immediately ran in.
Alex followed them and walked in as well.
As soon as he was in, Alex felt the weirdness in the air.
He could see the massive wasteland with not a single tree inside. There were gorges and deep cuts everywhere along the way, and different places with different destruction.
Whisker cowered a bit when he felt the smallest hint of intent in the air and couldn't handle much of it.
Alex took a deep breath and looked at every single piece of land he could see with Whisker's eyes.
He didn't really need him as he had seen some basic maps of the battlefield from the stores in the city, but it was still better to see stuff with his own eyes.
Alex was about to send Whisker back when he suddenly saw a few people fly away.
Before they made it very far, however, they fell to the ground, clutching their heads in agony.
Many people laughed and a few of them scolded them for being so ignorant of the place they had come to. A few people helped them, but quite a lot of them simply watched them while shaking their heads.
What they had done was what anyone would have done had they not been warned before.
This was the Ancient battlefield where Saint realms had died like flies and Immortals fought with all their cultivation base and Intents.
In a place where the Immortals fought in the sky, a place where that Immortal aura and intent was still remaining, flying was the worst thing you could do.
The sky was filled with aura that even the Saint realm cultivators had to be careful of before approaching.
For True realm cultivators, even the ground was dangerous.
Alex looked at the world in front of him one last time through Whisker's eyes and then sent him back into his beast space.
After that, Alex started slowly treading into the battlefield where he would stay until he entered the Saint Realm.
