472 Phoenix Trial Part 1

The next day,

Alex finally came out of his room. Although he had prepared for this, he kept thinking it was a waste of time. After all, even if he took a minimum of two months, it was enough to reach 3-Star. Besides, he could not help but be anxious, leaving Anya and Sherry alone that long.

At first, he suggested summoning someone in the meantime, but Anya said they would be fine. Ultimately, he decided to trust them.

The princess, Ellen, came to lead him to the trial.

"Sir Alexander Sirius, I am going to lead you to the trial hall. Do you need more time to prepare?"

"No. I have finished all the preparation."

She nodded. "Follow me."

Both of them then started walking inside a complex castle and stopped in front of a single giant door at the end of a corridor. She did not say anything other than the necessity this whole time. "Please. The others have been waiting for you in this room."

Since this was an unofficial trial, there were no guards or whatsoever and the only ones who knew about it were the people in yesterday's meeting. Because of that, there were no guards or servants around. Even the door in front of him was opened by Ellen herself.

Alex nodded as he entered the room. The room was spacious, despite only having a gate inside. The gate was extremely beautiful. It had an orange color with a beautiful golden pattern with an orange jade on top of the gate.

Stina came in front of the gate. She looked at Alex for a while before closing her eyes. She raised both of her hands and prayed.

"Unlike other races, we can host the trials for our own people, but we usually give permission for only our closest vassals like them. In other words, all the people in this room had gone through this trial. However, each of them has very different trials.

"Age, Experience, Memory, Bloodline, and Fire Affinity. All of them combine and become your challenge. I, The Current Phoenix Queen, Stina Blaze, give my permission to Alexander Sirius, the possessor of Human's Teleportation Crystal, to enter the Phoenix Race Trial. May the ancestor open the gate."

The gate slowly opened. They could see nothing but white light. Only Alex could see a white platform that the queen described yesterday.

"Let the trial begin." She smiled. "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to the people that my husband considers as family."

Alex nodded. He swore that if something happened to them, he would not mind destroying this entire kingdom. This would be the first time Alex left his closest ones in a stranger's place. This was not like when he left Firia in the lower world or where she was living now together with Alicia. He knew those places were safe.

But in this place, where he did not have any place that could be said as his base or home, he could not help but have a weird thought.

'I don't need to become stronger. If I just cure Alicia back then, I can just live with them in the lower world. I can still meet Anna and the others as long as I get enough tickets.

'I don't need to experience the torture for Undying Fire Body since I am basically the strongest in that world. Why do I even place myself in this...' Alex thought.

'Wait!' Alex suddenly activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a wisp of energy coming out of the jade toward his head. He suddenly realized why he was having this kind of thought. The gate had been testing him even before he came inside. He let out a deep breath as he calmed his mind.

The others were looking at him, confused. They did not know that Alex was already tested by the gate.

However, when Alex looked at them, it felt like they were waiting for something. Even so, he was not going to ask. He simply nodded to the queen and stepped inside the gate.

'Alexander Sirius, 23 Years Old, Human. Pure Fire Element. Fire Affinity Perfect." The gate suddenly let out a voice as he was coming in.

"What?" Alex was startled. He was surprised that the gate would tell them such a thing. Luckily, it did not tell them his other element, Space Element, and his unique intent. If they told them too, Anya and Sherry would be in danger.

The people were shocked by Alex's age. As for what would happen, Alex could only see it after he came out.

…

Inside the gate, Alex arrived at a full white world. He could not see the end of this white world and even his sense of direction became a bit messed up because of this white world.

Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes to see this world. Unexpectedly, he could see nothing. There was no energy around him, below or even above him. This world is simply empty.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Alex looked left and right before feeling something.

He turned in another direction and saw a wooden trail manifest itself in front of him. It was like telling him to follow this trail.

"Should I go…" Alex pondered for a moment. Because there was no clue or whatsoever, he decided to follow this trail.

He started his first step in this wooden trail while raising his guard to the maximum.

After walking for one kilometer, Alex still could not find anything. He was curious, so he decided to stop and observe his surroundings again. But he suddenly found out that the wooden trail he had passed was gone, leaving only the white floor.

This completely baffled him. He was wondering if he should go back or continue following this trail.

If he came back now, he would only need to walk one kilometer in the opposite direction. Albeit, this would become a bit hard for him as this white world already messed up everything in his head, including the distance. He might not be able to get into where he originally came from, so he decided to follow the trail.

"This Phoenix Queen said this is a test of will and perseverance. Don't tell me I just need to walk for a few months?" Alex tilted his head in confusion.

"System?" He thought he could ask the system who seemed to know everything, but got no response from her.

"I can't cultivate here since there is no energy flowing here… Anyway, I should just continue." Alex shook his head as he continued.

One hour…

Two hours…

Three hours…

XXX hours...

He followed the trail step by step, but the white world slowly messed with the time inside his brain. He did not know how long he had been walking on this trail.

He tried to fly, but somehow his power got restricted and only allowed him to walk.

"For how long do I need to walk? In fact, I don't even know how long I have been walking in this place? Damn, if only the battery in my watch is not dead, I would not lose track of time. Why doesn't Earth make something like an eternal battery…" He sighed.

He never thought it would be this hard when you lost the sense of time. You thought it was already an hour even though it was only a few minutes.

The only thing Alex could do was to keep walking in the wooden trail.

Suddenly, after XXX hours, Alex saw the end of this wooden trail. However, the one that stood on his way was none other than his former enemy, John Penn.

Alex activated his Spirit Eyes once again and saw this John was only an illusion.

John did not say anything to him. He simply took out his sword and pointed at him.

Alex also did not have anything to say and in fact, it was useless to say anything to him.

Both of them looked ready to fight, but John suddenly swung his sword downwards. It was a simple stroke, but a deadly sword wave came out of it.

"Huh?" Alex widened his eyes as he was surprised by this. He suddenly saw that John's energy increased until it reached the level of Martial King. And even the technique he used was his Seven Stars Cut. "Are you kidding me?"

"Heaven Breaking Sword." Alex put all his strength to destroy the sword wave. Alex frowned upon seeing this, it seemed this John was not John. And even that move was his move. "Don't tell me…"

Alex noticed something off and decided to see whether his speculation was right or wrong. He decided to leap toward John and slash his sword horizontally.

John used Alex's sword intent, not Twin Blade Intent. It seemed that even though this John was copying his moves, he could not copy his uniqueness. In other words, he had a massive advantage.

This was like fighting his downgrade self. However, what he found strange was that John's Sword and Spear was too stiff. This allowed him to overpower him in an instant.

After studying it for a while, he decided to end this fight right.

"Heaven Breaking Sword." Alex slashed his sword downwards with all his might.

John was using Alex's Berserker Strike, albeit the power was still not enough. The sword was cut before eventually splitting him into two. There was no change of expression in John's face.

He did not find anything when he killed John. He was his former enemy, and even though he had killed him in the past, he did not have any hesitation in killing him again, much less killing a doll.

The figure finally disappeared and the energy inside John suddenly burst into the sky and started enveloping this world.

He then observed it again with his Spirit Eyes. It turned out that the world was just a huge box. He could even see the shape because of that Spiritual Energy. In other words, Alex did not move a single step in this world. It was like walking on a treadmill. Even after walking a few thousand kilometers, you would only stay at that place.

If Alex did not have his Spirit Eyes, he would be fooled by it. Not long after, a gate appeared in front of him.

[Host, you should absorb this energy first. This place is like the Battle Tower in Heavenly Sword Sect. This won't take you too long, so you can keep cultivating while you are completing this trial. Of course, if you reach 5-Star, you need to stop.]

The system who had been silent for now finally spoke. "So, where are you just now? I ask a few questions to you earlier."

[This is your trial Host. It would be bad if I stretch my hand in this, so I won't give you any clue about this except for this.]

Alex pondered for a moment. "Well, fine. Anyway, I should just walk, beat the boss, and open the gate, right?"

No response again from the system. He clicked his tongue as he thought he could somehow trick the system with that. He shook his head and started absorbing the energy around this place.

"Wait… since I can cultivate in this place, why can't I just use my Spirit Stones?" Alex murmured as he took out a Spirit Stone from his Space Ring. It turned out that the energy from the spirit stone was restricted by something and would not flow to his body. It seemed he could only harvest energy from this place.

In other words, He might need to absorb the energy not to cultivate but to restore his Spiritual Energy. After all, he needed to fight a Martial King in the first fight alone.

"Will and Perseverance huh…" Alex sighed as he started absorbing the energy around.

After a few minutes, he then rose from the ground. He walked forward to the gate and opened it.