“I would like to test that theory.” A soothing voice sounded out from the side.

Alexis and Ryu both looked toward the direction the sound came from, they were clearly caught off guard.

“What a cute boy.” The gentle voice sounded from right beside Ryu. Before Ryu could react he could feel his cheek being pinched by a pair of soft fingers.

Alexis looked at Ryu dumbstruck. How did this person slip past an expert like him? He shot the ball of black Qi he had in his hands towards the newcomer but it dispersed as it came close the entrance of the cave.

What is this? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? How did this person make it past the protective barrier? Alexis stared in amazement.

Ryu took a closer look at the person beside him. It turned out to be a stunning lady. She had a tall frame and slender body like something from a masterpiece painting. Her crimson red eyes, like a sea of flames, were calm and warm. They held such wisdom and serenity that it was impossible for anyone to be not held captive by them. Her face had impeccable skin and perfect symmetry, she was without a single flaw even as Ryu looked from only an inch away. She had slim legs that seems to stretch forever and her silky hair flows fluidly down towards her heels. It was the first time Ryu had been captivated by someone’s appearance.

This mysterious lady walked out of the protective radius of the cave and approached Alexis. It took Alexis a few seconds to recover but he quickly blasted a few more deathly Qi at her. Without even moving, the Qi disintegrated right before it touched her skin.

“Who are you?” Alexis demanded. She’s stupid enough to step out, lucky me.

“You are not qualified to know who I am,” She chuckled. With a wave of her hand, all the vegetation that was killed by Alexis came back to life. “You should leave while I’m in a good mood.”

Alexis’s face changed. So this lady is an expert as well… is this life magic? It was lost during the last Great War when the Sky Continent shaman’s High Priest got killed. Could this be her “specialization” then?

A longsword appeared in his hand, Ryu could see a terrible amount of Qi gathered at the blade. With swift and vicious movement, Alexis pounced upon the lady. Alexis’ movements were much too fast to be seen by Ryu, he could only catch the afterimages of the blade.

“How is this possible?” Ryu gasped. Looking carefully at the center of the storm of slashes, Ryu could see the lady moving her hand and… using a single finger to block! Her movements were slow, slow enough that Ryu could see… slow enough that Ryu could mimic!

She’s deflecting with her finger only?!  The same frightening thought was in both Alexis’s and Ryu’s mind.

Crack. The sword Alexis was wielding broke in half. The memorizing lady look like she didn’t even break a sweat while Alexis’s face had a daunting look.

He started throwing all sorts of scrolls out and various magic boomed out. Thunder, magma, dark purple beams, giant boulders, and more deadly things fell harmless on top of her. At one point even what looked like a gigantic iceberg the size of a small mountain shaped like a triangular cone fragmented just as its pointy tip was about to reach her.

The mysterious lady seemed to be more entertained than anything. She just smiled and politely waited.

A huge dark circle formed beneath him. With a roar, a giant hydra slowly appeared from the ground. This one was exactly the same one he had summoned two days ago! The only difference was that this one has five heads. Each one left out a terrifying miasma from their breaths. Each additional head actually represent a new Domain! This one was two domains above the previous Emperor Domain one.

The hydra heads slowly approached her, with a simple gulp any of the heads can devour her! Just as they were about to make contact, the hydra heads let out a whimper in sync and lowered all their heads besides her.

“This is…” Alexis muttered in disbelief. He waved his hand and found that he couldn’t summon them back.

She reached out and petted the nose from the head in the center and softly spoke, “You have suffered enough, you are free now.”

The hydra was enveloped by a white light from the sky and disappeared out of thin air. The look on Alexis’s face is priceless right now, he had been shocked over and over again.

Alexis leapt back and with a wave of his hand two circles with dense ciphers inside flew out, an accompanying chant could be heard. A block of ice swiftly enveloped Alexis and a whistling sound can be heard above. A huge meteor was falling downwards towards where they stand. This meteor covered in black and blue flames was vastly grander than anything he had summoned so far, the size was larger than a whole city! Ryu instinctively walked backwards into the cave. The lady smiled which made her even more enticing. She held her hand out and a loud rumbling sound could be heard. The expanding shadow that was over her suddenly shrunk at a rapid pace. Suddenly a piece of rock fell from the sky and hovered over her hand.

“Here, you can have it back.” She spoke smoothly. The rock shot forward so fast that Ryu could hear the air getting sliced apart as it flew. A huge collision sound could be heard and Ryu came back out to the entrance of the cave to find Alexis on the ground. How can there be such a difference in strength? Is she one of the “kings” of the forest? Having seen Alexis ward off countless beasts

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that could easily wipe out an entire town, Ryu didn’t think anyone in the forest could be his match.

Alexis’s was withering on the ground, his left arm was missing. It must have been torn off from the rock she threw Ryu thought. With a loud grunt Alexis’s arm grew back. The new arm was dark brown and didn’t look like it belonged to a human at all though.

“Dark forbidden arts, I didn’t expected someone from the Dark Continent to be here.” The lady mused but she doesn’t seem to be troubled.

The Dark Continent? Ryu was shocked. According to Alexis, not that his word is all that reliable, the instigators of the last Great War was the Dark Continent.

Alexis grew in size, his muscles expended and his cloths ripped apart. He was five times bigger than he was before and in his hand a dark scythe appeared. His face transformed into that of a beast and his upper teeth grew a meter long. With both hands he swung the black scythe downwards.

The lady caught it with her bare hands. The sight was unusual and made no sense. It’s as if an adult swung an axe at a five year old and they five year old caught the axe with his bare hands. Despite his impressive size and strength, the lady holding his scythe wouldn’t budge an inch.

During this whole time she hadn’t moved a step Alexis’s suddenly realized. With his scythe stuck, he finally had a moment to look at his surrounding carefully. Not only that, the grass within a meter of this outrageous lady was untouched!

Fear had finally settled into Alexis. The materialized scythe disappeared and he flew upwards and became a black blur fleeing away. The clouds parted from his fearsome speed.

Ryu stared as the black blur shot further and further away. Unexpectedly a faint thud could be heard. The black blur seemed to have bounced off an invisible wall! It was actually kind of comical to look at. If the situation wasn’t so tense, Ryu would have laughed.

The lady casually made a grabbing motion with her hand and easily enough, Alexis seemed to be caught and dragged back by some invisible force.

“You fool, I’ve been around for over a hundred thousand years. I’m one of the executives of the Death Origin Organization! Let me go if you know what’s good for you. My boss is a legendary survivor of the Great War! You won’t stand a chance against him, he knows the legendary treasure is in here.” Alexis yelled as he struggled in futile in midair. His body had shrunk back to his normal size. He couldn’t believe that his opponent had set up a force field tens of kilometers wide and actually grabbed him with raw Qi from such a distance.

“You lie. A greedy human like you kept this a secret to keep everything for yourself.” She said simply. After a short pause. “Foolish human. You’re a million years too young to know the secret of the land. The legacy of the ancient ones is not what you think it is. The boy speaks the truth, only the “real” history is written in there and nothing more.” The lady spoke, her tranquil voice carried no traces of deception. She released her fist and Alexis fell to the ground. Her attention fell back to Ryu.

Alexis never suffered such crushing defeat or humiliation since he entered Emperor Domain over countless millenniums ago. He was unwilling to believe it. A purplish pill appeared in his hand and he popped it into his mouth. His aura skyrocketed and the sky darkened.

Although Ryu is still under the safety of the mystical protection that surrounds the cave, he could see a dreadful Qi seeping out of him. It was like he held the power to destroy anything, Ryu felt that if Alexis just looked at him then he’ll be crushed and his own Qi reservoir would explode.

“All those beneath Sovereign Domain are no match for me. I don’t care which “king” you are, if there’s no treasure then I’ll simply take your essence away!” Alexis spoke as the sky cracked open and large grotesque hand came downwards.

The lady frowned, Ryu couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Shouldn’t she come back inside this protected area?

Truly a foolish human. I spared your life and you still continue to push me? A telepathic message was sent to both Ryu and Alexis. She raised her hand a Ryu saw something unbelievable, it was as if the world around was crumbling from the sheer amount of raw Qi gathering at her hands. A dazzling azure beam that’s over a hundred meter wide shot forth and completely disintegrated the monster that was halfway out of the crack from the sky.

Alexis was once again dumbstruck. “Impossible that’s was a demon lord from the netherworld… are… you … are you a God?”

For the first time fear could be heard in his voice, these was no more condescension. The lady held up her other hand holding a bloody red object. It was moving as if… it was a beating heart!

Alexis’s jaws dropped and his eyes looked like they were going to pop from its sockets. He looked down and saw a bloody hole in his left chest. He raised his hand towards her and suddenly the heart blew up and a misty field of blood appeared for a second in front of her before disappearing.

An extremely fast transformation could be seen on Alexis’s body as he dried up like a seaweed and suddenly turned into a pile of sand. All that’s left on the ground where he stood was a few rings.