577 Devastating News

"This old man welcomes you o's fighters of the Sacred Continent."

The sound wasn't loud but echoed through everyone's ears. This sound managed to capture everyone's attention, including Alex. 

Turning around, Alex looked up to see the old man in the sky while activating his Spirit Eyes. The old man's 4-Star Martial Saint strength surprised him. By the look of it, the old man only had an advancement not long ago as the Spiritual Energy was still not stable. Nonetheless, the strength of 4-Star Martial Saint was enough to capture everyone's attention.

Alex's expression turned serious behind his mask. The old man had long white hair and beard. He wore big round glasses, making him look younger. His facial expression had been described by Leoz together with his picture, so Alex instantly recognized this old man.

"Most of you might already know me, but I will introduce myself nonetheless. I am Aran, Martial Arts Pavilion's Master. We always have this kind of event every hundred years to wait for the monster to appear. From where do the monsters come from? I don't know." The old man shook his head helplessly. 

"In any case, our ancestors made this place a few thousand years ago without leaving any note. We are thankful to our ancestors because his effort could give this opportunity. Anyway, you may be bored listening to this old man, so I am just going to say that this place only has one rule. No matter what kind of experience you have inside this realm, don't try to make any funny movements in this city. This old man shall be the one to stop you. At that time, I don't know what kind of fate you will have," said Aran with a deep voice.

The people gulped down, understanding the seriousness of this matter to Aran. Even if they were under the protection of influences, the influences wouldn't protect them if they were not important enough.

Alex, on the other hand, leaned on a wall while waiting for the realm to open. He only planned to move inside the realm and fought the Black Devil Sect's reinforcement anywhere so that he wouldn't care about his speech. It was at this time Alex suddenly received devastating news. 

[Host, Nicole wants to talk with you.]

His eyebrows twitched as the spirits never asked about this unless it was an important matter. Many thoughts flooded into his mind, but none of them were important enough to guarantee a request from the spirits.

The heart started pumping furiously as Alex walked into a dark alley while taking out Nicole's card.

"What happened, Nicole?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows.

"I need to inform you of some bad news," Nicole said with a deep voice as she also didn't take this matter lightly.

Alex didn't reply instantly as he calmed his heart down first. "Tell me."

"First, Elder Song Yi… I mean, the fourth elder is dead. The third elder kills him."

"The fourth elder is the one who has a closer relationship with Song Yu and the others." Nicole paused for a moment. "There is a complicated relationship between the first, third, and fourth elder. We arrived at Heavenly Continent earlier than them, so we don't know about the process.

"From what I heard, Song Yu should still be alive because he didn't directly kill her. Unfortunately, she was in the middle of the ocean… I'm sure Young Master knows how dangerous it is in that place." Nicole didn't continue as she could imagine Alex's expression right now. 

Alex closed his eyes as rage filled his heart. He wanted to release this anger to the Blackwade Clan, but none of them were here. He took a deep breath before saying remorsefully. "I see. Her fate is unknown."

He purposely said unknown because he didn't want to believe she died. 

"Yes. She will either go back or continue to the Heavenly Continent. If she comes to the Heavenly Continent, we will find her. Otherwise, Noel would surely spot her in the port town.

"I see. You said you have several bad news… continue then." Alex said with difficulty to calm his anger.

"After returning to the Blackwade Clan, the third elder and the first elder successfully convinced the clan to hunt you down. They are also trying to cooperate with the Fire God Clan. In this case, your situation will be dangerous. And I'm afraid they will come with a full force or at least more than half." 

"!!!" Alex narrowed his eyes as he was trying to come up with an idea. It was true that if the two clans targeted him, Alex would have a big problem. There was only one way to solve this issue. "It seems I need to use the favor of Elder Manness." 

Just like the ray of hope in the midst of darkness, Nicole said, "This can be good news or bad news, depending on how we act. But I notice that the successor of this clan seems to have some doubts about this. I am planning to leave the clues bit by bit to make him understand the truth.

"At that time, Young Master or I can show up in front of him and present the VIP Card. I have found out that the biggest hierarchy of this clan is Patriarch, Grand Elder, Successor, then Elders. If we can rope him to our side, we should be able to turn the situation around." 

"If that time comes, don't make a move yet as we want to use our trump card at the last second. For now, I want you to investigate the rumor of the VIP card. Though I don't have a good vibe about this." 

"Understood. I will do my best." Nicole knew that Alex was planning to use the successor to convince the grand elder and the patriarch, to kill the first elder and third elder. However, this was only the plan in her head. Alex must have the plan bigger than those. 

After finishing his talk with Nicole, he tossed the card inside the Inventory and leaned on the wall. He let out a long sigh. "We can't be impatient here. If there are too many clues, the successor will be confused. At this rate, I might need to take a brunt of their first attack before escaping to the realm. After all, they should have no Space Element Array Master in their ranks."

Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds before letting out another long breath. He had calmed his head down. "Whether Senior Sister is alive or dead, I will surely take revenge on them. As for how I will deal with the Blackwade Clan, I will see how they react first after I play all my cards. After all, I can deal with the Fire God Clan alone at this moment. It's better to forgive them and use them as my card in this battle.

"Besides, when I use the influence of Elder Manness, it should be enough to destroy them with the help of the Blackwade Clan." Alex looked up for a few seconds before starting to walk to the main plaza. 

Surprisingly, Alex found the plaza was empty with only a few people left, including the old man who greeted all the participants. He turned right and saw the gate was opened. 

Although barely, Alex could find Nelson's energy too, sneaking around them. He rolled his eyes away and walked toward the gate.

"!!!" Of course, all the people here noticed Alex's presence and turned their heads. Even the leader of their disciples' group already entered the barrier, why would someone like him hadn't. This confused them, wondering if he was late or had something in mind.

Nonetheless, Alex entered the special realm without anyone stopping him. As soon as he entered the realm, he was teleported randomly. 

"Look. There is a rogue cultivator here!" One of the people in his surroundings noticed his presence and shouted. 

The other disciples halted their movement and looked at Alex while smirking. With those long black robes, Alex somehow knew that these people were from Black Devil Sect. His speculation was strengthened by those people's words.

"Although we can't attack other influences easily, we can target the rogue cultivators and turn them into a blood pill." One of them nodded while coming toward Alex.

Alex swept his eyes through the entire area while counting the people who had blood energy inside them. He muttered to himself, "Fifteen people."

"What?" One of them seemed to have noticed Alex mutter some words and took offense.

Alex shrugged while asking them, "Do you think fifteen people are enough to kill me?"

"You are only a rogue cultivator. Who do you think you are? You might be a 6-Star Martial Emperor, but we have seven 5-Star Martial Emperors and two 6-Star Martial Emperors. Do you think we are afraid of you?" The one who took offense walked toward Alex while making a scary face. "It's your fortune to die in our hands."

He placed his hand on Alex's shoulder as Alex merely smiled at him. Alex said, "I won't do it if I am you."

"What did you-" Before he finished his words, he noticed the presence behind him and turned back, but his head was already flying. At the last second, he saw a black-haired woman, killing him with her scythe.

Without waiting for Alex's signal, his contracted beasts and his spirits, except Leoz, Jeanne, and Nelson, came out of his body and tried to kill the people around. Even without three spirits, they still had eleven people, including Alex.

Stina and Anna killed their respective opponents in an instant because of the difference in strength while the other finished their fight in a few rounds.

Fifteen people died in a few seconds. Alex's expression turned serious as he looked around with his Spirit Eyes to see if there were people nearby. 

After checking they were safe, Alex sat down before summoning Narman. "Narman. Even though you are a Martial King, your power should be enough to locate our enemies. Move around and maintain contact with the other spirits, so we can ambush them."

"Understood." Narman nodded before vanishing from their eyes. 

Alex turned back. "First of all, we have eleven people with us. It will be dangerous to move around despite our strength. Hence, I want to split us into three groups. Stina's strength is at the peak of 10-Star Martial Emperor, so I want her to lead a group of three. Can you do it?"

It wasn't Alex's plan to burden Stina since he wanted them to spread out. However, seeing how they grouped up like this, they would really need to form a group. In that case, he needed to rely on the strongest of their group, Stina.

Of course, she had no qualms about this and nodded without saying anything. "Understood. How about my teammates?"

Alex pondered for a minute before saying, "You will go with Kyle and Jean. Meanwhile, the second group will be led by Fabio. Your teammates will be Vera, Greg, and Artur. The rest will follow me."

Anna and Sherry exchanged looks and nodded at each other, agreeing with this arrangement. It was at this time, Anya suddenly shouted and stopped him.

"Wait, Alex. I think it is better if I don't go with you. I can observe what you can't observe and make a plan according to that." 

Unfortunately, the answer to her question was a shaking head. "I put Kyle and Stina together because they have a better combination together while Jean is the buffer of this group. It's the same as Fabio and Vera. On the other hand, Greg maintained his role as the shield of the second group while Artur was the spear. Lastly, our group has the biggest amount of firepower, especially with your support. Suppose we need to attack a larger group. In that case, this group can join with another group and attack them simultaneously, using their own strength.

"Don't worry, Anya. I'm not splitting the group with the thought in your mind."