905 Weak or Strong
Alex spent the next three weeks in the mine, not going anywhere as he carved chunk after chunk from the wall.
With a sword that didn’t lose its edge no matter how many hard surfaces he struck or dug into, Alex was able to do what many others would simply assume to be an impossibility.
Alex had now made such a big hole, that it could be a pathway in its own right.
He sent his spiritual sense into his storage ring and saw the nearly 700 Tons of Ore that he had carved out from the wall in all these days.
“Yeah, I’ve wasted a lot of time here,” he thought. He hadn’t improved at all in all these last few weeks as he had just focused on mining as much as he could. He did gain about 200 tons more than he would have if he trained, but that was not what he wanted at the time.
However, now that he did want it, he needed to leave this mine and get stronger. Thus he needed to go to the ancient battlefield as soon as he could, so he could train.
Alex closed the formation behind him and was about to walk out when a group walked past the location at the same time.
A girl noticed him and her eyes widened. “You! Stop!” she shouted.
Alex turned to see who it was and immediately his face fell. They were the same group from about a month ago when he had met them.
Alex ignored them and continued walking, but the girl quickly ran up and grabbed his shoulder.
“You disrespectful little bastard! Do you think you can run—” her voice trailed off when her senses fell on the massive hole to her right and she saw the missing wall.
“What the!” the girl was surprised when she saw it, and so did the rest of her colleagues.
They were shocked to see such a massive chunk of the wall missing, but what surprised them the most was the sharp cuts that were located in multiple places around the hole.
As if someone had cut through the wall rather than used brute force to try and break the ore.
“How can this be?” the men were surprised.
The man in the purple and white robe strode forward. “Junior brother, you were there last time there was a similar hole on this wall, and now you are here too. Do you still plan on telling us that you do not know how it came to be?” he asked.
The other 6 saints moved forward at the same time with a rather threatening stance to them.
Alex looked at all 8 of them, and then his sense fell back on the man that seemed to be their leader.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
“How did this hole, no tunnel come to be?” the man asked.
“I made it,” Alex said. “Is that what you want to hear? A True realm cultivator making tunnels where Saint realms struggle to put a dent?”
The man frowned. That was true. Under all circumstances, it would be hard to believe that it was Alex who made the hole. However, he was sure that there was no hole here and now there was.
And in the last many days, he went in and out of this mine, he was certain he saw a formation barrier here, that only just came down.
So, even though he didn’t want to believe it, the clues all lead to Alex being the one who put the hole there.
“Don’t lie to us, boy,” the girl suddenly spoke. “I’m all but certain that it was you who put the hole in the wall. I will make sure you fess up to how you did it.”
The other 6 saints nodded as well, as they were very curious to find out.
Alex snickered a bit. “Come on, senior! Make up your mind. Am I a weakling you can force into doing anything you want? Or Am I someone capable of putting giant holes in rocks that you can’t imagine doing in a thousand years?”
“Either way, do you really think the outcome will be in your favor? You will either be bullying a junior for nothing or provoking a very strong monster. Do you really want to find out which one I am?” he asked.
The group fell silent as they contemplated their choices and they could see that either one was bad for them. One was obviously worse than the other.
The man from the Blue Spring sect realized that there was nothing good that would come from this confrontation, so he decided to deescalate it.
“I th—”
“You think I can’t call your bluff?” the woman suddenly spoke and reached out for Alex. She moved quickly, her hands reaching for his mask.
Alex was fast too. His left hand at a lightning-fast speed, catching the moving hand mid-air, next to his face. Then, he pulled the woman towards him and with his other hand struck her in her stomach.
Golden light blossomed and then exploded at the location of the strike and the girl was sent flying far away in the tunnel.
A few of the saints immediately ran back to check on the woman, while a few remained where they were, ready to fight.
“Do you still want to fight?” Alex asked. The Saints here weren’t even at the Saint Condensation 6th realm yet. With such low cultivation, they had no chance of beating him at all.
The man from the Blue Spirit sect realized what he was up against. Alex was no longer a junior in his eyes, but a senior whose powers he could not fathom.
For all he understood, this was a Saint cultivator that wanted some fun in life, so he was imitating a True realm cultivator.
“My apologies, senior,” the man immediately bowed at the waist.
Alex was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected the Saint to not fight, let alone call him a senior.
“You aren’t going to attack me?” Alex asked.
“No, senior. Please forgive us for disturbing you,” the man said.
Alex lowered his guard a little and looked at the other saints. They had also assumed a junior-like stance and were no longer planning to attack.
“Very well then, I’ll let you be,” Alex said and turned around to leave. Even as he walked away, the man remained bent at the waist, bowing towards Alex.
It was only after a long time had passed that the man finally got back up, his face fully drenched in sweat at the fear of what could have been.
“We’re letting him go?” one of the saints asked.
“You wanna catch him? Go catch. I doubt he’s gone too far,” Another saint said, mocking him.
“Stop it,” the purple-robed man said and walked away. He went to check on the girl and saw that she was fine… as fine as a person with a few broken ribs could be.
“You have to get revenge for me, big brother,” the girl said.
“Yeah, I’m not courting death for nothing,” the man said with a slight chuckle in his voice. “Come on. It’s about time we return back.”