When Alex woke up it was well into the middle of the night, the forest itself wasn"t silent and the moon was out in all of it"s splendor. Alex shifted his head to the left and almost had to resist the urge to scream at the sight of the dead Hydra, he almost forgot about it, but thankfully he was smart enough to use the blood dragon mask to preserve the blood of the beasts. If that wasn"t the case with the way he pa.s.sed out, the blood would have either flowed away or coagulated by now. Alex stretched his hand and the ma.s.sive body was sucked into his storage ring, normally storage rings shouldn"t be large enough to carry beasts like this, but Alex was the Emperor"s son in law, not to mention the Childe Spirit Wind of the Empire.A ring was made with a unique seal to denote his position, and it was a storage ring with a rather ma.s.sive s.p.a.ce. Alex didn"t trust it for one bit, everything with the Emperor was a trap, especially with that poison in his body, but Alex had even more cards up his sleeve than the Emperor would have ever realized. The only reason that poison was still left in his body, even with the arrival of Xeron who could neutralize all toxins and poison; was because Alex didn"t want to Alex the emperor, after all he was sure the emperor was watching not just him, but his body. Either way Alex"s work here was done, though to be honest he was standing on Sky Steel.
And this was basically meteoric ore, this was sure to be ma.s.sively expensive for just a pound, yet Alex was sitting on a sixty foot tall and fifty foot wide stash of it. This much would make him a billionaire, not to mention the amount of weapons he could forge from it, in all honesty it was the forging that would bring more money, except of course the ore was sold to certain circles of individuals. None the less there was just one problem in front of Alex, and that was the fact that it was too big, and as such he had no other choice but to call for help. Alex pulled out his phone (yes he has one, it"s the freaking 21st century) and sent a message to Louis, now all he had to do was wait for the Lumiere to get in touch with the princess and cut a deal.
Alex knew even his reputation won"t save him from the amount of greedy people who would want to get their hands on this piece of Sky Steel. And while he could rely on the Wudang sect and the imperial family, this was the Academy. Family backgrounds can only take you so far if you don"t have the strength to back it up, and the thing is the Imperial family won"t go out of their way to help if there wasn"t anything in it for them, not even if the person he was asking for help is supposed to be his fiancé (one of them anyway). Alex knew Louis could cut a deal that would profit them greatly and facilitate the transfer of the ore back to the Academy.
So Alex"s one job right now, was to protect this colossal chunk of Sky Steel. But it was the middle of the night and there were no predators around, and Alex was feeling somewhat full and pressured. He knew his cultivation was about to advance, and he had the feeling that just like previous times, this wasn"t going to be a one level advancement. Alex called Khan out, minus the (Five Vein Element Treasure) that was safely floating in the middle of the Mantle"s spirit hall. Alex had no intention of trying to turn that thing into a spirit, his Qi cultivation was somewhat lacking, and he had this feeling that it would help him in an all round manner.
Not just for his Qi cultivation, but also for his spirit cultivation and the very sure feeling he and that he could also cultivate Mana as a mage. So it was perfect improvement in all three schools even if he hasn"t started on one yet.
Alex closed his eyes and began to utilize the (Wudang Heart Sutra). The cultivation technique was extremely unique, and wonder Alex had been able to achieve two of it"s three stages. The (Yin-Yang Heart Protection), and The (Inner Pill Skill). Alex"s somewhat cold and calm temperament cake about as a result of the first stage, the (Yin-Yang Heart Protection) stage fortified his mind and gave him good control over his emotions, not to mention it gave him a resistance against mental abilities like charm and illusions, and even telepathic attacks. The (Inner Pill Skill) was unique, it Practically gave Alex another source of energy, from a highly condensed energy pill above his Dantian, you could say it was a second one.
Relying on just his Words alone, Alex could probably fight for hours against stronger opponents, his only shortcoming being the lack of highly powerful and destructive skills in his Qi a.r.s.enal. He has been relying a bit too much of his masks and spirit energy, and Alex wanted to change that. The (Wudang Heart Sutra) was known for being a powerful cultivation technique that could out a cultivator in the most optimum and prime state to become one with the universe, even more so was the fact that it drew in the breath of the heavens and the earth with much more ease and speed than other techniques. It was like the slow and steady rush of a powerful river, and scarcely had Alex stated cultivating, when he felt a powerful explosion with his body, and his Dantian expanded.
"The sixth stage of the Open Dantian realm."
But that was just the beginning as Qi rushed to fill the Dantian, it"s excess getting absorbed by the inner pill that was also growing in size, not to mention the purity of Alex"s Qi was unlike any other. It was clear and smooth, like the best of all spring water right at the peak of a beautiful sunset. Ferocious winds began to pick up around Alex, they howled and whooshed as they carried with them the scent of blood and the remains of the previous battle, a sharp warning to all other Beasts to stay away, while Khan watched on with open eyes and a focused gaze.
Alex began to pull Qi from every nook and cranny of the forest, a ma.s.sive funnel of energy and wind slowly forming above his head. Qi was like the wind, it was energy that could not be seen or touched, only felt and sensed. In fact this was the case with all energy, they were just like the wind, present in all things, absent in none. A part of you just as you are a part of them, and Alex"s very biased alignment with the wind element was helping him drag every manner of energy possible, be it Qi, Mana, or spirit energy, all of them were slowly being funneled into his body. Tempering it, building it up and making it much more stronger than before.
In no time at all his Dantian was full again, but Alex was not just feeling pressure from his Dantian, there was also the pressure from his heart and from his mind. Though full, Alex could feel the Qi in his Dantian being guided by the Sutra to not just fill, but to also reinforce his Dantian, making it thicker, wider, more flexible and more durable. A Dantian was like a gla.s.s case, a hard enough but and you would rupture it, destroying a person"s chance of ever cultivating, but then Alex"s was being turned into something if a rubber ball. Yet very much similar to steel as it was tough and rigid, yet soft and pliable.
*Boom!*
"Seventh level of the Open Dantian realm" Alex exclaimed to himself as his meridians began to furiously rotate, not at all willing to slow down as the intake if energy became even more intense.
And soon enough there was another explosion and a loud sound of breaking through, this one however came from within the depths of his mind, and Alex was able to hear the voice of Nezha even in all of the commotion.
(First stage Spirit Commander Realm! What the h.e.l.l? Did you just skip nine whole stages and went directly to the next spirit realm! What sort of monster are you?)
Even Alex couldn"t answer that, it had always been an obvious fact to think that his spirit cultivation always advanced the fastest, wild most would say his advancement with Qi was insane seeing as he has just been cultivating for a little over a year, none would understand that for a spirit to cultivate from the spirit Embryo stage to the spirit commander stage, no less than 200 years of hard cultivation was required. Yet Alex was there, solidly and without and damage and a very st.u.r.dy foundation. Obviously it"s either the Mantle is all too powerful or Alex"s talent was beyond mortal and even immortal comprehension, of worse! It was both. Honestly no one knew the true scope of Alex"s talent, the emperor, his grandfather, mother and uncle had an idea...but how can Talent be measured with a machine, even worse when the person who owns said talent is willing to work hard to improve it.
There was no answer to it, but right now, Alex was just getting started, the winds picked up as ominous lightning clouds began to gather above his head. Alex was not aware, but his obscene talent and method of advancement had stirred the wrath of the heavens, and for the first time in all of history, a fifteen year old boy in the mortal gate realms of cultivation had summoned.....A HEAVENLY TRIBULATION!!
*crccackkak dooom!*