Chapter 688 - His Choice

"Now, I am sure what to do!" Alex smirked.

Alex found out that the water was actually illusory generated water. The moment he slightly pushed the wall, the water got drained a little bit. Even if it was the size of his water bottle, it was still a big clue for him.

"The push is light, but it drains a little bit of water in this cave. In other words, my main task is to drain water for sure. I have three ways of doing it in this place. Firstly, I can strike the barrier with my attack, and this barrier will calculate my force and strength behind it before draining the water corresponding to my attack.

"The second way is to maintain the Spatial Gate and drain them. The problem is I am not sure if I can create a Space World within this illusion. Which means, the last method is the most effective one but energy-consuming. It's to evaporate all the water around the cave with my Pure Fire like what I did last year."

Alex thought hard on what he wanted to do. What he did first was to check whether he could open a Spatial Gate, but it seemed the Blue Layered Realm couldn't be connected to this Illusory Realm.

"It seems I can only strike this barrier while using my fire to evaporate most of the water. Still, just like the previous one, it seems the test itself consists of brawl and riddle, and we need to use both every single time." Alex thought for a moment and muttered to himself. "I still haven't gotten enough information, but I will try to solve the future test with this in mind."

A giant sphere of Pure Fire appeared on top of him and started burning the water. However, Alex suddenly felt something wrong after two minutes.

The water was pressed by the vapor in this enclosed space due to how much vapor on top of the water, creating a huge amount of pressure. If he continued doing this, he would most likely get crushed by that pressure as the pressure would gradually grow.

"Hmm… This is basic physics. On Earth, all cooking tools usually have a hole in their lid to let the vapor outside because if it acc.u.mulates enough pressure from vapor, it will blast the lid away. This is the reason the water got slightly pushed, and I didn't get something like this when I burned the cave water because there was a hole connecting to the outside… I need to stop this and do this in a normal way." Alex let out a long sigh as he raised his sword and thrust it toward the barrier.

"Mythical Spear Cannon!"

"Boom—!"

The attack exploded as soon as it touched the barrier. And the water level started dropping.

"Wait. What? That single attack is for that much water?" Alex was stunned when he saw the water dropping almost a meter. "If I know I can do such a thing, I don't even need to drain this water with Pure Fire."

Alex shook his head and began his attack.

"Mythical Spear Cannon!"

"Blade of Conquest."

"Triple Draws."

Alex kept attacking until the water was completely empty, and the barrier vanished. Before going upstairs, Alex was pondering about this test.

"Is it really a riddle? I mean, it's that easy to drain all the water, and the puzzle isn't that hard like the previous one. Wait, if I didn't accidentally push the barrier, I wouldn't realize this possibility. I might even think there would be a secret passage or key and go in a circle." Alex gasped. "I see. The first riddle was to search while the second riddle had already given you the answer."

Alex nodded, convinced with such a reason and continued his way toward the next floor. The temperature started to go down as Alex climbing up the stairs, and the Ice Element was gradually increasing.

And when he reached the third floor, he found himself surrounded by snow. Not far from him was a land free from snow, with some blue pillars standing tall, circling around the area.

Alex went there without hesitation. He was surprised that these stone pillars were actually ice blocks. Each of them contained four pictures from top to bottom.

Before looking closely at each pillar, he found two empty boxes with a sign in front of them.

"If you can remake your past like the one shown inside the Ice Blocks, which one will you choose? Pick two ice blocks here, and the choice must come from the bottom of your heart." Alex read the words out loud before looking at the two empty boxes. To call them boxes might be a bit weird, considering they were like a drawer without a door. There were some spikes every few centimeters.

Alex suddenly realized that the Ice Blocks shape were matching the drawer. "I see. I need to go through all these ice blocks and choose two."

Alex walked toward the first one and saw a green-haired woman in the picture with her sword. "This is Putri?!"

Shocked by what he saw, he unconsciously touched the ice blocks and got absorbed into the world within the ice. Inside here, he couldn't do a single thing, including talking. He could only observe what happened as if he was watching a movie.

The scene was when Alex and Putri visited Zwaka's place, trying to increase their power, specifically the night when Putri wanted to talk with him.

"Alex, can we talk?" Putri asked with a smile.

This time, Alex suddenly activated his Spirit Eyes and looked at his surroundings as if he felt something was wrong. He stumbled on two familiar life energies. He was stunned. "Senior Sister… I feel your fiance has been cheating on you with your friend. Don't be angry first, and follow me. Remember to remain calm!"

Alex saw Putri wanting to rebuke him, but quickly walked outside toward Eric's room silently and put his ears on the door. Putri looked at him angrily but still put her ears on the door.

"Ah… Ah… Ah! Good Eric! Keep moving your waist!"

"Haha… You are the only woman in my life, my Princess. Just look at that innocent b*tch who waits for marriage before doing anything! She would never know we are only using her this whole time. Hahaha."

Putri was stunned when she heard Mega's m.o.a.ns and Eric's laughter behind the door. Tears started flowing out of her eyes as she stumbled on the ground.

Alex looked at her expression and grabbed her from behind, dragging her back to his room. There, she fell down and cried. "Why?!"

"I want to get stronger to grasp everything I want!" Putri screamed while clenching her hands.

The story progression became very absurd after this point. Putri became stronger by leaps and bounds, but also crueler. In the tournament, she revealed Mega's Scheme and ruled the tournament because Alex didn't participate in it. After that, he killed Mega and made Eric do her bidding like a slave, and she decided to live that way.

Alex closed his eyes for a second and sighed before returning to the real world. He took another glimpse at the four images and understood their meaning. "I see. The four images are raising her strength, revealing the scheme, killing Mega, and having a happy life with Eric… That's f*cked up."

Shaking his head once again, he went to the next four ice blocks.

This time it was Evelyn's turn. The twist was Evelyn started as his disciple, not Rose. Their relationship grew closer as time passed by until they reached Heavenly Continent, where they fought trouble after trouble together and gradually loved each other. However, Evelyn decided to stay in this world and didn't become a God. Alex was devastated at that time to the point it pulled the real Alex out of that scene.

"What…" Alex became speechless. "I am with Evelyn? No, no. Evelyn is like my little sister. In fact, I have been treating her like one because she looks like my little sister. What am I thinking right now? I will just see reality and solve this puzzle first. The four images this time are becoming my disciple, training with me, helping each other, separation… Next!"

Alex shook his head and continued to see the world within the other six ice blocks. The order went like this: Song Yu, Rose, Charya, Letizia, Song Jia, and Shelka.

In Song Yu's story, the four images were going to the ship to the Heavenly Continent, Alex preventing her, becoming her fiance, and living happily. It was not a ridiculous twist like Putri and Evelyn, so he put this one on hold even though his heart was bitter because he felt he would disappoint his wives if he chose this block.

After that, the four images were about Rose. She became the disciple like the real storyline, then helped him fight Fire God Clan, and almost died. In the last image, Alex saved her and reached God Stage together and lived with her afterward. Not that much different than Song Yu for the ending, so he put this on hold also.

The fifth person, Charya, had a twist where Alex became her disciple. He then knew her better and helped the Sect to reach the top before living happily ever-after.

Alex indeed felt Charya a bit pitiful and wanted to know her more. But it was not to the point, he wanted to have her as his wife. He could only shake his head and sighed before going through the sixth person, Letizia.

They still had their master-servant relationship, and she had been serving loyally for a long time. Alex didn't know why, but he gradually became fond of her and fell in love. He then decided to marry her. In the end, Alex decided to relinquish the master-servant relationship since they didn't need to do anything.

"Ignoring the marriage, I pretty much like the ending. I want to free her from this restraint, so she can choose her path. But I'm still afraid that she will be the second Shelka and betray me again." Alex sighed in a sad look and looked at the last two ice blocks.

The girl was Song Jia this time. It started when she saw her n.a.k.e.d. She asked him to be her fiance, and he agreed to take responsibility. However, Alex still destroyed the Joyful Union Sect to break the engagement between her and that Raku. Ultimately, they lived happily ever after.

Lastly, it was Shelka. Alex knew her plan from early on and tamed her. Eventually, she became his slave, and she was actually happy about it. She helped him in almost everything, and ultimately, she became like Anya, his strategist and wife.

Alex gasped and stumbled on the ground. He couldn't stomach the last scene and had the urge to shatter the ice block. He took a deep breath to calm his heart down.

"What the hell? All those stories are messed up. The one who makes the twists in the stories are surely brutal. First of all, I can't actually picture Putri becoming bad and living happily with Eric like that, so this one is out. As for Evelyn… This one is the most neutral even though there was a separation.

"As for Song Yu, Rose, Charya, Letizia, and Song Jia, these five are literally the same. Raising strength, helping each other, and becoming my wife. To be honest, I don't really like it when it comes to this matter… Alicia is enough in this scenario. Yet, the last one is Shelka. I can't even think about how I can live with her like that, especially with that betrayal stuck inside my memory.

"If I choose Evelyn to be the first block, then who will I choose for the second one that is neither Putri and Shelka?" Alex fell into deep thought. He closed his eyes and looked into his eyes, wondering which one he actually wanted to choose between the five women.