Some people witnessing the murder with churned stomachs all turned around with clear disgust and fear. This scene was too much for their young hearts to handle. Deaths emerged too many times in this sealed world. Especially for this time's exploration.
Out of thousands of disciples, so many perished. It truly showed how dangerous such a place was. Even though Alexander was the cause for most of them.
Exiting the sealed world, dozens of elders awaited with solemn faces. The one they were looking for was one of the very firsts in sight.
"You!! Come here!" Standing up from the cracked, arid ground, one elder jumped toward Alexander in a hurry.
A clawing hand making the disciples quiver, the aura of a blue tiger formed behind the old man. But even his lightshow and fluttering white beard could not stop another clawing hand from clutching his skull first.
A silver hand gripping harder, the elder panicked. The strength he felt coming off from the youth in front was not ordinary. There was no trace of spiritual energy, yet his soul still shivered.
'What a strong physical body!!'
"Help! I can't win! We should all go toge-" Hoping to gain the assistance of other elders from all four forces, he was brutally killed with a cracked open skull.
"Not much brain matter, no wonder..." Throwing disturbing jokes around, Alexander gently waved his arm as if slowly slashing horizontally.
The still stunned elders around feeling cold sweats form all jumped into the air. They were quite fast, but not fast enough.
Without even the ability to understand how, they all saw their lower bodies fall down to the cracked earth. The sound of flesh and bones clashing with the hard ground was upsetting a few stomachs. As for the elders, they would not be able to survive anyway.
Bleeding from their seven orifices, the elders in the sky, split in half, all collapsed, soon landing where their lower parts now resided.
A brutal display of strength, a confusing outcome. A disciple at the Earth Realm completely destroyed elders above the Nascent Soul Realm. Clearly, something was amiss.
Having had his fun, Alexander was exposed. There was no point in staying here any longer. And so, just like the passing clouds during a windy day, he vanished from his spot.
Left behind were disciples in a daze, stranded near the sealed world, far away from their sects. Easy preys to the true predators of the area.
.
.
.
Heading toward the center, Alexander was not sure how to proceed from here on out. Should he go for more fun or more progress? Maybe in between?
Things were not as simple as they seemed however. Fun could result in progress, and progress could make one take a few steps back. The best would be the third option.
'Empyrean Realm's peak, I need a sect stronger than me, but not by much. Let's slowly approach the center and see.' With a new goal in sight, Alexander would first thread cautiously toward the center, then gauge the average strength. Finally, he would be able to find a proper sect to join.
The setting sun embracing the sky, covering the mountains and pleasing the eyes of countless, Alexander arrived near a small city.
This place was in the middle of nowhere, plains south and mountains north. The sun was being hugged by two mountains beyond the city.
Silently walking in the wide center road, Alexander looked around for a bit. The wooden structures showed no proper resilience while the people were quite weak.
Even the best he could find was only in the Divine Realm.
'Still not deep enough. Nowhere near.' The Core Territory of Limbo was quite the sight. It felt so small yet so utterly gigantic. Mountains could be bigger than worlds while the landmass appeared infinite. No matter how much Alexander travelled, the giant floating sects in the horizon seemed to not have moved since. As if he was stuck in an endless loop.
Yet, he confidently knew for such a scenario to not be the case. The Core Territory was smaller than the Inner Territory. But was it truly so? Could spatial abilities alter this truth, or was this truth not one to begin with?
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
After all, the Core Territory was still enormous. This place held secrets Alexander would be sure to come across one day. The reason for this specific territory to not be in space, Alexander was quite excited about knowing it.
"Ah!" A shockingly common scene unfolding, Alexander was bumped into by a young man.
Coldly looking down on the short youth, he inevitably caused him to tremble.
"Not apologizing?" Wondering why this youth would not speak, Alexander felt his words to be pointless. Sighing, he resumed his walk, forcefully passing through the young man by pushing him with his shoulder.
Sent to the ground, the young man was in denial. Angered still, he surged to his feet, ready to take out a knife.
"!!" A finger pointed in his general direction, he only saw this finger glow a silver light before his vision turned black.
'I'm not going to waste my time with frivolous youngsters unable to contain their undeserved anger.' The orange light of the sun falling, pink and dark blue covered in shadows the place where Alexander stood just a few moments ago.
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.
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Even deeper into the Core Territory, Alexander could finally see the floating sects get exponentially bigger. However, they were still nowhere close to him.
As for the sight around him, with the sky back to its cobalt shade of day, the world was littered with structures. The deeper into the area, the grander the buildings. Of course, they could never match the immortal sects from the center point, but still.
It was the Veridian Sect. Green shades of colors flashing at every corner, green buildings, green fires, green lights, and much more. A faint mist was also covering them, as if a sect from the underworld.
'From what I heard, this sect has ties with the strongest powers. Apparently, disciples from the sect world come here often to snatch some talents. Therefore they keep losing diamonds in the rough constantly. Must be tough.' Clearly not caring in the slightest, Alexander was even thankful for this chance.
He might now be able to enter this sect world and continue on his road to success. The only downside was strength. Such a sect must be entered, but he would not be able to pick the difficulty.
Landing on the ground, Alexander slowly walked within the small sect. It felt like a city almost, cheap trinkets and scam artists everywhere shouting loudly. The people here seemed dead, like corpses. They had dim lights in their eyes with heavy bags under as if they never slept in their entire life. The pale shade of grey coloring their skin was quite apparent as well.
This sect was around the middle to top of the region, few sects and organizations capable of offsetting their position. In here, the strongest, acting as the grand elder, was a middle aged man with a solid foundation.
'Oh? This guy is actually nearing me! Around second stage Empyrean Realm... I really landed in the right spot.' Hesitating slightly on whether to enter the sect world now or going for the strongest sect under the sect world nearby, Alexander shook his head.
'Ah... the sect world has to be better. More dangerous, yes, but better overall.' He had no real doubt about his ability to join one of the three sects within the sect world. With a cultivation like his, even if he was not strong, he was clearly much more valuable than any Veridian Sect disciple.
And after closing in on a specific building, Alexander entered it.
"Hello~, how may I be of assistance to the young master?" A very eloquent and charming young lady greeted him at a counter. This place was the recruitment hall, where people could apply to enter the sect officially. Some people were taken as disciples by the sect's disciples, so unofficial discipleship appeared.
"I want to enter the sect." Unfazed by her trained charming tactics, he saw her remain the same. It was not her first time dealing with eccentric ones.
"I see! So young master is the silent type, eh? Here!" Handing over a dark green and grey jade token alongside a stack of resilient paper, she waited.
Inspecting the token, Alexander did not mind being truthful with the questions asked within. There was no advantage in lying in here, especially when the sect world was involved. Lying would trouble his plans much more than telling the truth.
After looking at the stack of paper, Alexander noticed them to be asking the same thing as the jade.
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Name : Alexander
Age : Unknown but probably above five billions years at the very least
Cultivation (major realm) : Empyrean Realm
Cultivation (minor realm) : Peak, don't know the name
Do you possess a suitable cultivation technique? : Yes / No I don't really have one, but am not sure if I would need any
By signing with your blood, this registration form will bind you to the Veridian Sect for five hundred years (500). Only sign if you agree.
(This contract can be broken depending on the means)
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Controlling his body, Alexander forced an opening to form on his index finger. A drop of blood elegantly flying, it drew a strange 'A' letter on the form.
'This is not an actual contract with soul stuff or anything really... as for the last part, something like the sect world will most likely be able to break it. Five centuries is nothing anyway.'
Handing over both the token and stack of papers, actually filled with blank pages, Alexander awaited.
The receptionist inspecting them, she frowned before twitching a bit. This application was quite messy.
"...Alright... you just need to wait over here with the others, a higher up will verify everything."
"Sure." Turning around, Alexander headed for an open waiting room filled with lowly wooden chairs. Sitting on one, he crossed his legs and closed his eyes.
'My internal world still has no real issue. Some people are trying to breakthrough the Half-Universe Realm already. But no one made it yet...' Alexander still remembered his time when he stood at the Instinct Liberating Realm's peak. The next realm was honestly quite the hassle, a realm he might have never achieved if not for Valtos' assistance at the time.
It was an elusive realm dependent on luck and destiny more so than resources. Since one would first need to know about the realm first and foremost.
'The predecessors... the ancient beings of cultivation... the first immortals...'
'How did they manage to break past these restrictions without any help?'