912 Intent and Aura

As Alex started walking, he felt how thick the air was. For some reason, the entire battlefield was like a viscous fluid that was blocking his movement at every step.

And from what Alex could tell, it wasn't even aura or intent that was creating the resistance, it was the actual air.

'It is not just the air,' he thought. While he couldn't physically feel it like he could the air, Alex did notice that the Space in this place was also… affected.

It didn't feel constrained as it did with the secret realms. No, this was a different feeling, one he simply couldn't explain due to his lack of understanding of space.

'I should improve that,' he thought. 'But before that, I will have to improve my Sword Intent and Sword Qi.'

It had been a long time since he had a chance for proper sword training. The last time he had done that was in the forest for 2 years where he couldn't use his eyes.

It was funny how fate was. Once again, he was going to have to fend for himself with no eyesight.

Still, compared to last time, he had a cultivation base that was effectively in the Saint realm and a spiritual sense that went further than anyone would ever need under a normal scenario.

Of course, Alex didn't send out his Spiritual sense to the furthest he could. He kept it close to him, ready to pull it back if necessary.

After all, there were so many aura and intents out there that it would be dangerous to wantonly walk around with no care. There were also Saint realm cultivators that he could offend, that he certainly didn't want to.

The thousands of cultivators that entered were starting to branch out in various directions.

With both its length and width in the hundreds, the Ancient Battlefield could house as many people as could come.

Alex walked further, feeling the slight hint of aura in the air that didn't threaten him. He had learned that most of the places were actually not threatening, granted you stuck to the ground and were in the high True realms.

There were however a few places that were so dense with aura and intent that one couldn't just go there without proper protection.

One could block aura with talismans and artifacts, but blocking Intent was hard. As long as the Intent was targeting you, you had to fight back or lose.

After walking a bit further through the desolate path, after most of the people around him had moved along to find their own way through the land, Alex brought out Pearl.

Pearl shuddered the moment he came out but was fine a second later. He just needed to get used to the area.

"Is this the place you wanted to come to?" Pearl asked telepathically.

"Yes," Alex said. "Be careful. Don't let your spiritual sense wander off too far."

"Okay," Pearl said. "You are going to train right?"

"Yes," Alex said. He felt the environment around him and sighed. "I wish this place helps me learn some Space laws, but I will have to be content with being able to learn Sword aura for now."

Alex took out a sword from his storage bag. This was a True grade sword that he was rather fond of After all, this was the sword he had made not long ago.

Using a sword he made himself, using Sword Intent and Sword Qi through it would be quite easy.

"Let's just hope that since I have improved my will quite a bit, the Sword Intent will have reached very close, if not exceeded the requirement for Sword aura," he said. "Since I already overcame the requirement to learn Sword Aura, the only thing remaining should be to hone my Sword Qi."

Alex nodded to himself as that made sense to him.

"What about me?" Pearl asked.

"Uh…" Alex thought for a bit. "Since you have learned the Dao of Metal, we should work on you learning more Dao related to that."

"So… Dao of Sharpness, Dao of Conduction, Dao of Malleability, Dao of Ductility, Dao reflection, and Dao of Cutting," Alex said. "Those were what Shen Jing told us you could learn right?"

Pearl nodded.

"Great, then we will help you learn exactly that," Alex said. "As for me… I should focus on improving my understanding of the Dao of Techniques. That is the main thing I need to do before I can improve every single technique I have to the highest level they can go."

Alex continued walking. The more he did, the more he understood how weird this place was.

With the air not moving at all, for the most part, it felt like Alex was moving through a portrait that someone had drawn.

There were no sounds here other than his footsteps, not even the rustling of his clothes. He had to take a heavy breath to even breathe normally as the air simply refused to move at all.

"How do you think this place came to be?" Alex asked.

"I don't know," Pearl said. "What is this place exactly?"

"A battlefield of ancient times," Alex said. "But it's weird because the battle was over 90 thousand years ago, and yet all these aurae still remain here. How do you think that happened?"

"Hmm… maybe someone sealed this place?" Pearl said.

"No, this place had no seal. It was an open place where anyone could walk in and out. Given how many places must've been a battlefield at that time, why is this the only one remaining?" Alex wondered.

"Even if someone had sealed it and another person had unsealed it sometime later, the aura wouldn't be this potent, and the small time intents would last this long," Alex said. "Something major must have happened in this place."

Alex arrived next to a giant boulder that looked red to his sense. However, it was just his senses that gave him such an illusion because the rock was filled with Fire Qi.

"Someone was using some sort of fire technique and it must've landed on this rock," Alex said. "How did this fire Qi last so long?"

Alex produced his own fire next to him and let it go. As soon as the fire lost connection to his Qi, it disappeared. However, the Qi that was left behind didn't.

"Oh, could it be that the air not moving is causing this?" Alex wondered. However, while it did take a bit of time, the fire Qi still disappeared into the atmosphere. It had only remained so long because of the environment he was in.

"And yet that fire Qi still remains. What's so different about that fire?" Alex wondered.

He took a deep, heavy breath and walked towards the rock. Pearl stayed behind and he had nothing to do with Fire Qi at all.

Alex walked carefully. While this was Fire Qi and he was used to it, this was one that very much likely belonged to a Saint realm or even an Immortal realm cultivator.

Alex walked one step at a time, feeling the danger as he moved forward. He felt the Qi, its strength, and the intent behind the action of using this Qi.

Alex felt the intent and it was a similar intent that he vividly remembered feeling many years ago that night.

"Murderous Intent," Alex said. "Makes sense."

He stayed there for a bit longer as he forced the Intent from affecting him and felt the aura of the fire instead.

One of the things he had learned recently was that being around a strong aura of something helped one understand the laws behind it.

One of the reasons why Alex learned so many Fire related Daos was because he was an Alchemist, who sat around a fire making pills.

However, those normal fire auras could not be compared to the fire aura that was here.

Alex had come to learn and hone his intent, but the real treasure here was the aura.

He sat next to the Fire Qi for a while and learned what he could. While he didn't gain a Dao, his understanding had improved a lot.

After a while, he stood up and left the place to go back to Pearl who was waiting for him out of the range of the murderous intents.

Hundreds of kilometers of land, with hundreds of thousands of Aura everywhere. The potential in this land was endless and Alex felt he had a chance to learn about everything he wanted to.

"Let's go, buddy," Alex said. "I think I know where I need to go next."