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Alex broke through to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster not long after. Because his eyes were closed, he didn't see the phoenix's corpse slowly burned to ash. The remaining fire energy started forming a fireball. It was the phoenix's egg in Nelson's mouth.

Alex absorbed it until he felt something wrong. Usually, there would be another Suction Force, in other words, Sherry. But this time, there wasn't such a thing. He stopped his cultivation. At this time, he had reached mid 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. Maybe, he could breakthrough to 4-Star Martial Grandmaster not long after.

But because of this feeling, he stopped his cultivation and opened his eyes. The phoenix was still in its egg form.

He remembered that he also gave a pass for Sherry. She could also absorb it after he broke through. Noticing it, he immediately opened his eyes and found the cave was empty. Sherry was nowhere to be found. Alex immediately activated his spirit eyes while moving toward the cave's entrance. Of course, while bringing the phoenix egg.

He finally saw Sherry's figure with his Spirit Eyes. But what shocked him the most was when he saw many figures that surrounded her, and Sherry's sign of energy was a bit small. Alex knew it was a sign of exhaustion. Sherry must have used most of her Spiritual Energy, if not all.

When Alex arrived, he saw Sherry's bloodied body along with many monster corpses at the cave entrance. Sherry was guarding this entrance the whole time. He didn't know why but the image of the last cry from the phoenix flashed in his mind.

With that, he somehow understood that the last cry was not the phoenix's last struggle. Instead, it was trying to call as many monsters as possible from the surroundings. That meant when he absorbed the energy by himself, and Sherry fended off all the monsters that wanted to approach him.

He was dumbstruck when he realized that. His heart started to ache, feeling hurt because he didn't know that. Especially when he saw the monsters were mostly Grandmaster Stage monsters.

...

Sherry glared at those monsters. Blood had flown from all over her body. Even so, she was still fighting here, unfazed. She had been fending these monsters with her physic alone. After all, her energy was nearly empty.

Another monster charged toward her. She was going to respond to it before realizing a yellow barrier appeared in front of her, separating her and the monsters in front of the cave.

"Tortoise Shell Array." A familiar voice that she had been waiting for was ringing in her ears. She turned around to see Alex's had finally finished his cultivation and managed to break through to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster.

"Wuu." The barrier should be able to hold for some time. She then walked toward Alex, trying to make a happy appearance about his coming. "Wuu Wuu (Master, You have come out.)"

Alex saw Sherry's appearance. His heart was crushed by pain. Alex kneeled down and hugged her as she was in her big form. He was still managing his 'Tortoise Shell Array' to make sure no monster could break through this barrier.

"Why... you should wake me up, and we can fight together." Alex asked while clenching his fist.

"Wuu Wuu Wuu (Master, I am wrong this whole time. Because our situation has become more comfortable, I was slacking too much. When you beat me back then, I remember our meeting back then.

At that time, I was only a fox that was defeated by you. You spared my life and accepted me as your comrade. It was a blessing that I managed to evolve back then. After that, we went to a battlefield, fighting life and death battles everyday hand in hand.

When you praised me, it felt like everything was worth it. We were not as strong as we are now. But, I felt like our bond at that time was more solid than what we have now. It took me too long to realize it.

We didn't have Anna and others back then. Only you and me, we relied on each other. I realized that I became too lazy. That's why, this time, I want to restart back.

Without me realizing, I have become a leech on your side. Only taking advantage of you without helping you with anything. Even when you called me to help you, the job was pretty easy without needing much effort. I will become stronger and stronger for you and my sake. That's why, Master, I'm sorry.)"

When he heard that, the pain in his heart became excruciating. His hand started bleeding because he clenched it too much. Alex took a long breath.

"You don't need to apologize. For now, you should go back and recover first. Let me handle the rest."

"Wuu." She let out a little groan and came back to his body.

Alex closed his eyes, trying to control his emotions. After that, he stood up and glared at the monsters that were trying to break his barrier along with the monsters behind them. His eyes were filled with killing intent. He took out his sword and spear.

Sherry was exhausted. Judging from her state, she alone had to fight with a few hundred monsters in that state. She had spent a third of her energy when fighting the phoenix. If he was the one that fought with these monsters. Then, he wouldn't end up like Sherry. After all, he had far higher fighting prowess than her.

At this moment, he didn't care whether someone saw him like this. With his sword in his right hand and spear in his left hand, Alex released both domains. The first one was obviously his Spear Intent, then continued to a larger domain, which was his Sword Intent.

It became a two layer domain. He clenched his sword and his spear tightly, eager to butcher these monsters. Reacting to his killing intent, his Pure Fire also started seeping out from his body. He deactivated his Tortoise Shell Array and started his killing spree.

The land would soon become red as corpses will build a mountain.

...

At the battlefield,

Leoz had come back and started helping the other spirits. He also didn't see any people on the wall either. It seemed they had joined the battle. The new monsters started coming with their higher strength, and before long, Grandmaster Stage monsters started coming.

This didn't become a problem for Alex's group. After all, they had Leoz, who had become a Martial Lord. Anna coordinated all these men for Alex, trying to sweep the monsters clear effectively.

When they were fighting, Nelson suddenly felt something wrong. He stopped and flew upward, trying to see the situation from above.

"Nelson, don't break from position!" Anna was overseeing their movement, so when Nelson suddenly flew and broke their position. It became a bit troublesome.

"Something is wrong." Nelson tried to look at the battlefield's situation. Before long, he suddenly realized what was wrong.

"The monsters... that's right. Their number is not correct." Upon realizing that, Nelson summoned a few shadow birds and sent them out in all directions. He finally saw many monsters were charging toward that particular cave.

"Not good, Young Master is surrounded by monsters." Nelson shouted.

Hearing that, Leoz immediately said. "I will go there."

But, Nelson immediately rejected him. "No! Anna, you should go there."

Nelson had seen a troubling scene, that's why he wanted Anna, who was the most suited in that kind of situation.

Anna was perplexed, but she still nodded her head after hearing Nelson's words. Nelson immediately let his Shadow Bird guide her. Anna grabbed the shadow bird and flew at full speed.

Leoz complained as he was confused about why Nelson rejected him. Nelson only said, "Anna and Anya can only be the one there. Since Anya is not here, then only Anna can be there."

Leoz widened his eyes and shut his mouth. He started increasing his pace to finish this farce as soon as possible. Fabio also heard that and immediately understood. After all, he had a wife. He could understand what Nelson was trying to say.

He also increased his pace. With this many monsters, he had leveled up once more and became a 2-Star Martial Grandmaster while Anna also reached 5-Star Martial Grandmaster.

...

Anna flew toward the cave. She was shocked by what she found when she arrived there. She saw red ground with blood flowing like a river at a certain spot. There was a masked man, standing with his sword and spear,  unmoving.

Sadness started filling her heart, and she landed on the ground. Seeing the corpses and blood, even so, with her experience alone, she had gotten used to this kind of environment.

She walked toward Alex and hugged him. Alex had yet to speak. Because of the mask, Anna couldn't see his expression. She touched Alex's left hand gently while saying with a soft tone, "You are doing great, Young Master. You have killed them all, now please try to release this sword from your hand."

Alex slowly released his sword. Anna then moved toward his left hand and again tried to release his spear.

"Young Master, you are not wrong. It is always an X factor that suddenly appears out of nowhere. We can talk with this after you put your spear down." Anna patiently guided him to release his spear.

Not long after, Alex also dropped his spear slowly. Anna then smiled at him. "So, why do you act this way, Young Master?"

Anna could understand his heart. Alex also had this temperament even in his previous life. This only occurred when it concerned about the life of his friend or family. She remembered, back then, sister Xingzhi was the one who calmed him down.

She had known him long before he became a god, and they started loving each other. Every time his friend or his family was hurt, it broke his heart. Killing was the only thing he could soothe his heart before Xingzhi came to his life.

Even though Anna and Anya met Alex sooner than her, they didn't possess such a thing to calm him down. Maybe they were too childish at that time. At a time like this, what he needed was a woman that understood him and accepted him.

Because she wasn't here, Anna was the only one who could do that. Now that she really did this, she finally realized what she felt back then. The pain in her heart was excruciating. To see the one they love became like this, it was truly unbearable.

'I'm not that childish girl like back then. I will be a woman that he can trust his back.' Anna said in her heart. Remembering Alex would always become stronger every time he encountered a problem.

He might choose a foolish choice sometime, but all of his decisions came after he thought about it. It was always some factors that ruined it for him. After all, no one can predict the thought of a living being, whether it was humans or spirits like them.

As long as a feeling was involved inside their mind, they became irrational. Anna and Anya were like that too and often became his burden because of that. Even their sister Xingzhi was the same. Nobody was perfect.

Every time they fell, they could only stand up, again and again. 'As long as it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger'. Taking the experience of today, he would come back stronger the next day.

"I almost made Sherry die." Alex said with a hoarse voice. "If... If I bring others with me, she won't become like that.

"I'm sure you made the right choice. Young Master, you are always thinking about us first before you make your choice. This is why we love and follow you. You can ask any of us. You can ask me, you can ask Leoz, you can ask Sherry, you can ask Fabio or even Nelson.

You can ask whether we are willing to follow you or not. Everyone will say, we follow you because of you. We are ready to lay our life to open you a path. If your path is blocked, we shall be the one that opens that path for you.

You didn't make a wrong choice. Sherry was willing to protect you with her life, as you also think you will protect her with your life. So, please don't take this feeling from us. You want to protect us with your life, but we also want the same. We want to protect you with our life. So please let us protect you too." Anna said while taking off his mask.

He didn't cry or anything, his expression was just tired. He was blaming himself for all this. She buried his face in her chest and let him rest while stroking his hair gently.