Gulping, the trio, still seated, wondered what mysterious choice they would have to make next.

"Don't look so miserable! You can still refuse it, well only if one of you accept it in the first place."

Now even more nervous than before, they were not sure what to think, only attentively listening to Alexander.

"I come from a lower plane and will ask of you to cripple your cultivation to restart your journey using my plane's cultivation methods. This is mainly to see the difference in quality between the two methods. I am confident however that accepting will grant you unforeseen benefits!"

Exchanging glances, they were shocked by their sect master's request.

'Cripple our cultivation? Why not ask us to die instead? Actually, wouldn't we be better off killing ourselves instantly?!'

Still, in the midst of their reflection, the Pure Grade young man that already adorned white robes raised his gaze with determination.

"Sect master! Will you not go back on your words? If I accept, will you help me surpass my past self when I make it back?"

Smiling, Alexander nodded solemnly, his eyes flashing a silver glint.

"Don't you even worry about this! I will guide you all the way back up. While it is an experiment, it is not without its fair share of surprises for you! Don't you wonder how this Alexander has made it this far? This is how!"

Shivering, the young man, his scholarly gaze gone, felt ready to adventure into the unknown territory of a foreign cultivation system.

The other two on the other hand, were not as optimistic about this specific choice.

Cupping her fist, the seated rose gold woman apologized.

"Sect master, this disciple cannot accept it! My Martial Heart would not make it!" Turning her head, she expected the middle aged man to do the same, as she could not even understand why someone would even dare accept, the first young man a true mystery to her.

But contrary to her expectations, the middle aged man beamed while cupping his fists.

"Sect master, this disciple will have to cause trouble!"

With enough guinea pigs, Alexander dismissed the young woman, who left flabbergasted.

-----

Inside a stone room, three men were currently seated on the ground.

Two were young while the remaining one appeared to have lived for quite a while.

Out of the trio, only a young man was not deep into cultivation.

Seated behind the two, the young man glanced some distance ahead, where pools of blood, red and black, sizzled.

It had only been two days, but Alexander felt happy to see the two disciples cultivate diligently even though they suffered terribly a few hours ago.

Having to cripple their cultivation base, the two were horrified by the pain and despair it filled them with.

They felt as if anything could kill them, even the gentle breeze outside.

"Once you are done stabilizing yourselves, join me outside." Having verified their survivability, Alexander stood up slowly, before exiting the room nonchalantly.

Once he was gone, the two sighed.

"Senior brother Yu, are you also feeling worthless? Crippling my cultivation like this... I honestly thought that obtaining more stability on my Martial Heart would be obvious... yet it seems like the opposite actually happened!"

His face scrunched up, the middle aged man felt like he was about to die. The pain was near unbearable, even to an expert like him. He wondered how his senior brother even managed to appear so calm when the feeling might be even worse.

"Brother Maffrec stop calling me senior brother! You know how I feel about this, I may have a much higher cultivation base and achievements as well as status within the sect, but I just can't handle being called as such by a middle aged man! I have a higher cultivation than my father, yet do you think I call him junior?"

Frowning, the middle aged man scoffed.

"I hope not..."

Chuckling, the two exchanged jokes and stories while agonizing for days.

Finally, after a week of pure pain, they felt comfortable enough to stand without trouble.

And as they did, they felt like jelly had replaced their muscles.

"Brother Maffrec, look how disgraceful you are! Stop trembling like this, it is unsightly of a cultivator!"

Narrowing his eyes, the middle aged man sneered.

"Brother Yu, you say so... but maybe you should look at yourself in the mirror ? You are faring no better than me!"

Trying to push the door open, they soon realized its unfeasibility after bumping into it.

"We're that weak?!" Shocked, Yu Xian felt both enlightened and scared.

'No wonder my robes felt so heavy! Even with our forces combined... we can't push the door open!'

Noticing the sound, the seated Alexander frowned.

'Damn, I forgot about that... Let me save them the embarrassment.' His Celestial Qi fluttering, it gently opened the door for the duo.

"I'm happy to see you two able to stand up, I suppose that your body refinement has not completely disappeared."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Cupping their fists with some difficulty, the two looked as if aches were rampaging their entire bodies.

Their heads lowered, they saluted.

"Sect master!"

"Sect master!"

Waving his hand, Alexander dismissed their greetings.

"Alright, alright. We should start, you guys are barely hanging on, and it won't get better anytime soon!"

Shivering, they hoped that his words were nothing but exaggeration.

Elegantly waving toward the tiled ground, Alexander waited for them to sit cross legged.

Once ready, he urged them to prepare anything necessary, such as notes or even memory jades.

"Ready? Good! Then let's start, shall we?" Smiling, his lips parted, beginning to explain the mysteries of his second Universe.

.

.

.

-----

The chirping of bird beasts sounding, Yu Xian opened his eyes. The sunlight blinding his vision, he got off his light-blue bed.

Rubbing his eyes while yawning, he could not help but grunt from what would come next.

'Why am I already stuck? The Sect Master must be embarrassed of me!' Sighing deeply, he dressed himself with pure white robes.

Passing through the doorway separating his house from the world, he stretched his arms while facing the clear blue sky.

Yu Xian was appalled, a genius that could become a Pure Grade trial disciple of the powerful, yet still emerging, Devouring Sect. But even his talent felt mediocre when trying to cultivate using his Sect Master's methods.

Done stretching, his face hung low.

*Creak*

A slight sound heard, he did not bother turning right to face a middle aged man.

"Brother Yu, why do you look so dejected?" The man was none other than Maffrec, the Azure Grade trial disciple.

"Brother Maffrec, let's stop with the obvious questions first thing in the morning shall we?"

Scratching the back of his head, Maffrec felt slight pity for his brother.

"With how grumpy you are, I guess you're still stuck at the Dao Heart Realm? While you're no better than me, you're not worse either!"

"But don't I have a much better talent? I surpassed you while being younger, let's not forget about that!"

His eyelid twitching, Maffrec could only give up.

"I get it, let's just stop with the useless quarrels and join the Sect Master."

Seeing his friend nod, the middle aged man sighed in relief, following behind.

Heading up the main stairs of the sect for a few hours, with great difficulty, the two finally arrived at a platform just in front of Alexander's hall.

"You two are getting better, last time it took you both over ten hours!" Since the two of them were still crippled from their powerful cultivations, just a few stairs were transformed into a powerful enemy.

Luckily, Alexander had prepared them houses just below his hall.

"You guys, have you still not grasped the Qi transmutation by the way? Do you still need help from the arrays?"

Since these two were not from his Universe, Celestial Qi was all that they knew. So how could Alexander expect them to transform it into other forms right from the bat? Therefore he did not hesitate to use arrays as a mean to an end.

It had only been a few weeks, yet both were already at the Dao Heart Realm, but just as Alexander predicted, this major realm turned out extremely difficult to surpass.

'The Celestial Realm does not really promote a deep comprehension of the Dao... So how could they breeze through the Dao Heart Realm? Without a good understanding of any Dao, this major realm is a true wall of steel.'

"Sect Master has a strange sense of humor, brother Maffrec and I are nowhere close to a breakthrough. I just don't understand how to do so... Gaining enlightenment of one Dao is easier said than done, how could it be so hard!" Lamenting, Yu Xian slumped on the ground, exhaling a mouthful of hot air.

The sun blazing, the entire platform was illuminated.

"Now you understand how powerful I am? There are many things I do not wish to even bring out from my Universe, as it may or may not shatter the entire Celestial Realm to pieces!"

Alexander had many means to escape death, but also many powerful techniques and abilities he had yet tested for various reasons.

'Just my Daos alone could do so much... Just a shame that both my Dao of Time and Dao of Space are heavily restricted here... But when it comes to other, simpler Daos, such an issue is not present.' With enough time, Alexander was extremely confident in surpassing his own cultivation base's battle prowess with his Daos alone.

'And I still haven't used my Death Aura... While it had never reached the peak, its powers were just pure insanity.'

Alexander had two closely related reasons for not using his Death Aura, or how some called it, Killing Intent.

The first and most important one was that his Death Aura could destroy lower dimensions on its own, and while it may seem unimpressive for the Celestial Realm, one was never too cautious when it came to such esoteric and unknown powers. This innate might came directly from the Heavenly Way, but which, Alexander was not ready to find out just yet.

This was the cause for the second reason, the unknown ! He estimated it to be either nullified or useless, but if it was not... using it may destroy the Celestial Realm's Laws and disturb the Multiverse. The worse would be the entire Celestial Realm being sent to the void or even destroyed instantly, an outcome Alexander did not wish for.

'Maybe if I reach the peak of the Celestial Realm I'll try...'

"..."

"...aster..."

"Master!"

"Sect Master!"

"Hmm~?" His bubble bursting, Alexander's lucidity emerged.

"What?"

Exchanging a glance, the two disciples wondered where their Sect Master's mind wandered to.

"Sect Master, I just wanted to ask about the Sword Dao." Yu Xian immediately asked with some shame.

"Sword Dao~? I told you to stop with shit like this ! If you want to use a sword, just comprehend the Blade Dao! It has better effects for half the effort!"

'Sword Dao? Sword Dao my ass ! Is this idiot disciple not right in the head?! Why bother with a single weapon, which would not only diminish the power but also increase the difficulty? Just learn the Blade Dao and stop pestering me!'

Focusing on a single weapon was wise for instantaneous might with the chosen weapon, but Alexander also knew that a wider Dao not only gave more leeway but also better results.

Following a single Dao for the first time was, obviously, a great choice. But later on, such a Dao would then become not only a focus, but also a foundation.

The first Dao one comprehended often became the most used and most powerful. Therefore, comprehending a wider Dao was of course a much better alternative.

As for the future...

If one was stupid or untalented, they would opt for a couple Daos, but for everyone else, having a few dozens of different Daos was the norm !

'On Earth, stories always depicted the true experts being lucky to comprehend the Dao of Space or something similar, and even having two Daos was considered incredible... could not be farthest from the truth !' Back to his bubble, his thought kept pouring in, soon flooding him with a disturbing realization.

'Hold on... Why do I always think of Earth? It shouldn't... If I thought of brothers like Qiu Qigang, then fine, as for beautiful women, it would also be fine, but Earth?' Frowning, his external appearance deterred his disciples from disturbing him.

Now truly creeped out, Alexander could feel that something was wrong.

'I have lived for almost 50 million years, saying that I am old is quite the understatement... Wait... why would I think that ? I may be old for Earth's standards, but compared with the Multiverse and what might lay beyond... I am probably young even !' His eyes two narrow slits, Alexander was now filled with horror.

'I have only lived a few decades on Earth... technically, I shouldn't even remember it!'

'Maybe I would've because of what happened when I ascended... but now this is getting really weird!'

Nothing on Earth was special, Alexander had seen multiple words with striking similarities. Be it technology, from simple to extremely complicated, all the way to culture and history, he had seen worlds exact replicas. So why was he obsessed with this specific world?

'Am I linked with it? With its Universe? No maybe I'm just very sentimental.' However he quickly denied it, not feeling anything for Earth other than contempt.

'It truly is a fantastical mystery ! It's not dangerous for now, and my Martial Heart does not seem implicated yet, but I'll need to keep an eye on this.'

Back to the world, Alexander's eyes swept his disciples, Yu Xian the first to interrupt this staring competition.

"Sect Master, about the Sword Dao..."

Veins bulging, Alexander was truly irritated.

"Fine! I'll teach you! Stop being a clingy stain! I'll fucking it teach to you, this stupid Sword Dao!"