574 Entrance

It turned out the Cursed Forest was inside the Black Devil Sect's territory, albeit a bit further away, making it less suspicious. According to Nelson, the Black Devil Sect seemed to avoid this place. This matter piqued Alex's interest as he was wondering if there was something special in this place.

After all, this place changed his opinion drastically from destroying the sect as soon as possible to destroying it after he was too powerful for the sect to handle. There was also another purpose by hiding inside the realm. It was to confuse the Fire God Clan and Black Devil Sect. For Black Deil Sect, Alex's group looked like they were heavily injured and needed a few years to recover. As for Fire God Clan, they would think Alex hid on the Northern Continent. 

By doing so, Alex would have time to increase his strength peacefully. 

Alex arrived within an hour by using his Teleportation Array. He didn't know about the specific place, so he stopped right after entering the Black Devil Sect territory before summoning Nelson.

"How is our position?" Alex asked with a serious expression. 

"We are close. If Young Master wants, we can fly from here toward that direction." Nelson pointed his finger a bit left from where they should go. "I don't know what kind of place Cursed Forest is since even after entering the forest, I still couldn't find anything other than a normal forest with a bit of creepiness. However, there should be some traps nearby if the realm is there."

"Indeed. To hold a Special Realm, Array Master usually would set up a few Space Element defenses to prevent us from entering. Depending on their skill, I can or can't forcefully enter the barrier." Alex nodded.

"Yeah. Let me guide you to that place." Nelson nodded before leading Alex in the front.

Alex quickly followed him without saying anything. He activated his Spirit Eyes to check his surroundings and found something strange.

After around fifteen minutes, they entered a vast desert. This place felt strange for Alex, especially from his Spirit Eyes's perspective. "Wait, Nelson. Can we stop for a few minutes?"

"Yes, Young Master." Nelson abruptly halted his movement before moving toward Alex with a serious expression. "If I may ask, why do we stop?"

"This place… No, this desert is very strange." Alex looked around and noticed pink energy around the area. This usually symbolized Space Element was around, but this pink energy was tainted by red, green, or even black energy. 

Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. From the ground, Alex didn't notice any other energy aside from sand. Even his eyes couldn't see any symbols. At first, he suspected there was an array around the area, but it seemed not to be the case.

"This place has something that shouldn't belong to this kind of place. However, it's also tainted by something." 

Alex looked at him for a few seconds before asking, "Why don't you learn the Spirit Eyes too?"

"I am afraid I can't. It's a ta-" Nelson stopped before finishing his word. He was about to say 'taboo,' but it would lead to too many clues about the Previous Alex, so he refrained himself. "Anyway, no other spirits could learn that technique for various reasons."

"..." Staring at him for a few seconds, Alex sighed. "Anyway, this place is no joke. There might be a trap in this area, so we should proceed with caution."

Nelson nodded. "Understood. I will slow down my pace."

There was another thing that confused Alex. No monsters stayed around this place, even underground. This made him think whether they died in this place or migrated.

Unfortunately, the only thing he knew was that the answer was inside the Cursed Forest. Alex continued while taking out all the spirit cards before calling the trio. "Sherry, Kyle, and Stina. Come out."

Sherry wanted to greet him, but his serious expression made the thought disappear. She only nodded at him before flying while observing the surroundings.

There was no need for words to understand Alex's intention since they somehow figured their situation.

The journey went without a problem. However, Alex noticed that the closer they were, the denser the space energy. This made him worry about what would happen next.

After around an hour, Alex could see a forest on the horizon and furrowed his eyebrows. 

Sherry and the others realized his expression, but not saying anything.

It wasn't apparent from afar, so he decided to come closer while observing the energy with his Spirit Eyes. Alex abruptly halted his movement, staring at the forest dumbfoundedly. 

"This… is impossible." 

Alex's voice stopped everyone in their tracks. Sherry came to him and asked, "What happens? Is this place dangerous? Should we stay away?"

"I don't know." Alex shook his head as his sweat started dropping. He turned to Nelson and asked, "You have come to this place, right? What kind of place is this?"

"I didn't find a single suspicious thing here. It looked like a normal forest for me. Even after investigating the entire forest, I couldn't find a single thing." Nelson shook his head, ashamed of himself.

"It's fine. Don't beat yourself." Alex smiled before turning back to the enormous Space Element. He tried to see the array from afar but had yet to find even a single symbol. If this was an array, its size should be huge. This caused Alex to ponder the matter over and over again.

He was hesitating to come inside the forest. Firstly, he didn't want to get stuck inside the barrier since he had something to do. Secondly, Alex recalled a single peak Rank 8 Space Element Array. 

"It would seem a person of high-level sealed the three races in this place," Alex muttered.

"!!!" Sherry and the others gasped as they stared at him, asking for an explanation.

"There is an array called "Within World." It's a peak Rank 8 Space Element Array. The array itself needed a technique that my Master asked me to learn, Spatial Gate. This technique combined the Spatial Gate to create an Array within the blue-layered realm." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. 

"Young Master… Do you mean I couldn't see the array because it was inside the blue-layered realm?" 

"Yeah. This allows the user to create a Space Prison. In other words, the only way to get inside is to activate the array within the blue-layered realm in this area. Now I can see why the area is surrounded by Space Element but mixed with other elements. However, I couldn't understand why someone would use this technique." Alex gasped. 

"What do you mean, Master?" Sherry asked, not understanding his words. 

"This technique needs sacrifices. There should be 10 Martial Saints with at least 5-Star to keep this realm intact." Alex said with a grim expression.

"Martial Saints? But if they went such a length to seal the people inside, wouldn't it mean the people inside the realm are very strong?" Nelson sweatdropped because this might ruin their plan.

"I don't know. The only thing we can do is check the realm. I can send Njomo inside so that he can take a glimpse of these three races." Alex said before turning to Nelson. "However, I would be troubled if you are going there too."

"Understood. I would leave some instructions to Njomo before he goes inside." Nelson nodded. 

"Alright. We should recheck the forest, so I can make sure this is the case. The denseness of Space Element makes it hard for me to move in the blue-layered realm. If this is truly the case, I want to search for the core before opening the portal." Alex said. 

As Alex said those words, Njomo came out of his shadow and leaped toward Nelson. It would seem both of them were talking about something, so Alex just left them alone for a few minutes.

After finishing their talk, Nelson led them inside the forest since he was the most familiar with this forest. Unfortunately, the forest looked the same as any other forest. Green leaves, tall trees, etc. 

It was only after walking for a few minutes Alex found withered trees, grasses, leaves. Alex was astonished by seeing this sight as this was the first time he saw something like this. He wanted to say that this must be the legendary withered forest… but the situation didn't allow him.

He could only proceed with caution while observing his surroundings. The forest was empty without any living beings inside. Even the wind didn't blow around this area.

"The center of the forest is in this direction. There is a stone mark… or I should say a grave. Just as Young Master said, there were around eleven people there."

Alex furrowed his eyebrows before nodding to Nelson. "Lead the way. That might be the core. Oh right, is there any lore about this Cursed Forest?"

"Hmm…" Nelson pondered for a minute before shaking his head. "No. I didn't find lore about this Cursed Forest."

Alex sighed. Usually, the information would be the one that boosted his confidence. He finally got to the point there was no information about this dangerous place. As a careful person like him, information was the most important thing before doing anything. And this lack of information made him hesitant to venture. 

Luckily, Nelson said the forest itself was safe, so he didn't mind checking the graves first.

After walking for another few minutes, Alex arrived at the core area of this forest. Unlike the dead trees around the area, this place was full of energy. He saw a huge lake surrounded by dead trees. In the middle of the lake was a small island with eleven graves. One in the middle, while the other ten circled the first grave.

Alex scanned the area first before leaping toward the graves. "This…"

In the middle grave, a few words were written. "Here lies the hero of the Blackwade Clan, Song Shijie and ten powerful warriors."

Alex looked around the graves and took note of their names. Then, he checked his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes and found that this place holds immense energy. Alex quickly created a portal to the blue-layered realm, and all his speculations were answered.

As he said earlier, it was filled with symbols. Even without entering the portal, he managed to locate the gate which he could open and send Njomo inside. 

"Njomo. After entering the portal, I don't know where you will be teleported to. If there is a danger, quickly call me, and I will summon you back. Do you understand?" Alex looked at Njomo with a grim expression. 

"Woof." Njomo nodded furiously.

"Good." Alex brought Njomo inside before tweaking the symbols for a bit. It was then he activated a small portion of that array right below Njomo's feet. "Teleportation."

The symbols glowed, and Njomo vanished into thin air.