621 Spirit Eyes

"Ahem. I apologize for my appearance earlier." Atlas coughed and said with an embarrassed tone.

"Haha… We don't really mind." Alex chuckled, brushing the matter off. After carrying such a burden for a few thousand years, watching how his comrades died, and observing the growth of their children, it was normal for Atlas to express it like that.

"Anyway… what are you going to do right now? Training or asking Igor for that technique?"

"I will be training first and go to him a few months later." Alex nodded. 

"If that is your decision, I won't say anything more and simply wish you luck." Atlas nodded before looking at the token in his hand for a minute. He suddenly handed the token to Alex and said, "You have given me the hope that I need. Thank you."

On one hand, this token was worthless to Alex as it could only be used on this barrier and Atlas couldn't open the gate behind him and escape from the Blue-Layered Realm. On the other hand, Atlas handed back the token to show that he would wait until everything had their respective conclusion before thinking about going home. This showed how much trust Atlas placed on him. 

Alex hesitated for a moment before taking the token. 

"Then, I will go home first. Have a good day." Atlas slightly bowed his head and only for an instant before flying away.

Alex glanced at Nelson in which the latter stared back. "Nelson, do you want to go outside or stay here? I am just going to stay inside the barrier for a few months, so my safety is not a problem, especially after Atlas handed back the token." 

Nelson thought for a while and said, "I have no job outside other than watching over the continent. It's better to stay here and ask Njomo to do that job. Although we can trust the three leaders, I still need to observe them as to make sure they wouldn't have a single bad thought about you." 

"Eh?" Alex was sure that Nelson was going to leave, but he chose otherwise. Nelson was always a mysterious person in his eyes, and he never understood his train of thought. Nonetheless, Alex allowed him to stay in this place. "Alright."

"Thank you." Nelson nodded. Alex didn't know he was actually going to have a private conversation with the three leaders. This opportunity would allow him to have all the time he needed to have a very long chat with those leaders.

Alex entered the barrier nonchalantly before turning back to Nelson and asked, "You are leaving, right?"

"Yes." Nelson then clasped his hand respectfully and bowed his head before vanishing into thin air. "Then."

"Good luck then." Alex nodded to the disappearing Nelson. 

Without their company, Alex muttered to himself. "What should I do right now? I will build rank 7 Gathering Array for sure… Wait! I still have Stina here." 

After hearing his call, Stina came out of his body and bowed to him. "Master, do you have any task for me?" 

"No. Since you have been sacrificing your training time for my charade, I believe it is time to get your intense cultivation training," said Alex with a guilty tone. Stina should be able to reach 3-Star Martial Monarch by now if she didn't stop her cultivation for a while. She had been saying it was alright because there were too many events that needed her power, especially the one that was held by the Martial Arts Pavilion.

"Master didn't need to feel guilty. That was my choice." Stina smiled brightly. Having a younger appearance, extended lifespan, and enjoying life with Kyle was already enough for Stina. For Alex, who granted all of these things to her, she didn't mind such a small thing. 

"Thank you." Alex smiled helplessly. "Anyway, I am going to draw a rank 7 Gathering Array for you. By the time I reach 9-Star, you should be able to reach 2-Star."

"Master is having too high expectations of me. I only have confidence in breaking through after my master reaches 10-Star to be honest." Stina humbly said. 

"Don't beat yourself down too much." Alex chuckled before saying. "Alright. Enough of chatting. We have limited time with so many enemies outside of this place."

"Indeed." Stina nodded, seeing Alex quickly turn around. She suddenly called him and said something. "Master! I didn't regret any of my choices in following you."

Alex glanced to the side, revealing only his mouth to her. The moment he opened his mouth, two words were echoing in her ears.

"Thank you."

After that, Alex started creating two rank 7 Gathering Array for himself and Stina. He entered one of them while Stina used the other. They began their training to enter the next stage of cultivation as soon as possible.

The world didn't have any big movement since the three leaders had their peaceful-time in their territory. The Undead King also didn't say anything about the result to the other leaders as to prevent the information from spreading. Nonetheless, the two leaders also understood the condition.

Much to their dismay, they let it go from their heart despite having unbearable yearning.

Finally, one month later,

Inside the barrier, the energy around Alex's body began spiking, showing the sign of breaking through. Alex's eyes were still closed for another few minutes before he suddenly opened his eyes wide, and the energy spiked.

The spiked energy created a little shock wave to the surroundings, but nothing changed much. Even the dust didn't kick up to the air. 

Alex opened his eyes and let out a relieved breath. He checked Stina first, wondering if she was bothered with his breakthrough. Luckily, Stina was still sleeping inside her Gathering Array in her phoenix form. This was nothing special because Sherry and Kyle said it was better to cultivate in their original form.

He then checked his body and was slightly astonished. "I have reached 9-Star Martial Emperor… I know that I need another two months to reach 10-Star and one or two months to consolidate before challenging my Lightning Tribulation… Still, I believe this is already not bad. I also have that flower to evolve my Spirit Eyes to the maximum. Should I continue my training or stop to evolve my Spirit Eyes to the highest level possible?"

Pondering the matter for a few minutes, Alex decided to use the Godly Optic Flower first, so he didn't need to worry about this and continued in consolidating his strength after reaching the 10-Star Martial Emperor stage.

He took out a white flower containing a huge amount of energy that was very beneficial to his eyes. Judging from the color, it was similar to the previous lotus that evolved his eyes once.

According to the manual, Alex needed to grind this flower first before pouring the water and boiling it. After cooling down, he could drop the liquid on his eyes. 

He didn't hesitate any more and followed the original instruction. The grinding only needed Spiritual Energy because while he took out a water bottle from his inventory. There was no record of the need for any special water to boil this flower. 

Alex finished the brewing process not long after. The liquid itself wasn't that much left to begin with, only around twenty droplets. In other words, he only needed to use both in each eye.

Waiting for it to cool off wasn't a long and boring process because Alex was never bothered with heat as he was a Pure Fire user. He waved his hand and separated the liquid into two by using his Spiritual Energy.

The two liquids, which contained ten droplets each, floated above his head before Alex looked up. As soon as he loosened the Spiritual Energy, a droplet dropped onto his eyes.

He blinked his eyes out of reflex but noticed something surprising. The droplet that should stay around his eyes for a few blinks suddenly evaporated the moment he blinked his eyes once. It miraculously vanished into thin air, confusing Alex for a second. 

However, he suddenly remembered the description of these droplets and dropped it once again. The process repeated until Alex used all the liquid in his possession and closed his eyes completely. 

The Spiritual Energy that lingered around his eyes suddenly slipped through his eye sockets and worked like magic on his eyes. Alex felt the warm sensation that slowly turned into a tickling sensation. Like a hundred ants swarming his eyes, making him want to rub them, Alex couldn't open his eyes at the moment if he didn't want to fail.

Nonetheless, it didn't have a painful sensation like his body refining, so Alex endured it while clenching his hands. Getting used to this feeling was much easier than pain. Alex simply forced his eyes closed, and after around an hour or so, the ticklish in his eyes slowly went away. 

He gradually opened his eyes and looked at the dark cloud for a few seconds, checking whether his eyes were alright or not.

"I have finished the refining, right?" The question flashed on his mind as Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and got the answer to his question.

"!!!" His body shook, startled by the sight he saw for the first time. Almost a hundred meters above him was the ceiling of the barrier that protected the portal. Alex could see numerous symbols there suddenly.

"Are those really symbols?" He muttered to himself. "It's like a projection of the symbols that were planted on the monolith…"

"Is this the power of the highest level of Spirit Eyes?" He shifted his vision a little bit and found another group of symbols not far from here. Those symbols surrounded him, making him a bit startled for once. However, the moment he looked down, he realized the symbols were actually the symbols from his Gathering Array. "I thought it was an enemy array…"

Alex shook his head and glanced at Stina, who was still sleeping comfortably. He decided to check her with the new Spirit Eyes to see whether something was worth inside it.

What shocked him the most was her Space Ring. Unlike the previous time, Alex could somehow see the barrier and items inside Stine's Space Ring. "I can even see through the Space Ring? Really?"

Alex couldn't believe it himself, but he had seen the real prove with his own eyes. He observed Stina, but the latter had no change or whatsoever. "It would seem that the ability this time was to recognize Array or something?" Alex pondered for a moment and shook his head.

"I can't say anything much about this, but I can slowly unravel the secret behind Spirit Eyes. I should focus on cultivation first." Alex fell into silence before taking another sneak peek on the barrier and the world around him. It was hard to ignore the urge to see the world with his new eyes.

Unfortunately, there was nothing different from the usual world he saw. Only the barrier that had something different from him and a clearer picture on the portal tree. He asked himself, "Is the last stage of this Spirit Eyes actually allowing me to see the real appearance of something?"

"I don't have any other explanation than that.." Alex pondered for a moment and shook his head helplessly. "I should really cultivate. At least, I already have a clue on how useful this Spirit Eyes is." 

He gradually closed his eyes once again and calmed down.

Before he could enter his cultivation, two red-colored balls suddenly came out of his body, forcing him to open his eyes again.

*Gasp—!" Alex opened his mouth in surprise as he watched the two red-colored light balls turned into two figures.