600 Devising the Strategy

Anna appeared when he began creating a safe place with his array, protecting him from the monsters nearby. Her worry was proven to be unnecessary because the spirits had cleared the area since long ago. 

After the array finished, Anna quickly left his side and joined the others, killing monsters. 

Meanwhile, Alex thought for a moment to make a schedule for himself. He crossed his arms before looking at a one hundred meter radius barrier. "Hmm… I make the barrier this big because I am not sure the size of the rank 7 Illusion Array and Simulation Array. I will practice the Illusion Array first before incorporating it to make the Simulation Array. After that, I will work with the barrier inside the Simulation Array."

He would need to finish training these three arrays within two weeks. It was truly a big hurdle for him because it would normally take a month. Fortunately, he had a chance to work with the rank 8 Array, deepening his understanding of array. In fact, the array boosted his confidence in pulling this sprint through.

"I can do this." Alex took a deep breath as his face turned serious. "Hmm, I should also open the Gacha Tickets too… Should I do it now, before the fight or after I finish the mission? Hmm, the third option is a no since I need to use EXP Cards in the battle against the Black Devil Sect. As for the other two, there is no problem either way. I will do it after this training then." 

Deciding his course of action, Alex took a deep breath before taking out many bottles filled with blood. His gruesome trial and error had begun.

…

Two weeks later, Alex removed his barrier from inside. He found out that the spirits had been standing by in front of his barrier since a day ago.

"We have been waiting for you." They clasped their hands in unison and bowed to Alex.

"I finished my training one day ago. Why don't you guys come inside the barrier? The token will always be the key to my barrier." Alex asked, tilting his head in confusion. 

"You are too tired after creating arrays nonstop, especially your Mental Energy. We don't want to disturb you in your recovery." Anna smiled gently before walking toward him. "Besides, we have cleared this forest, so we are just waiting for you to come out."

"How is the situation on the other side? I mean, Anya and Leoz." Alex asked.

"I think it's better to ask them yourself. They are waiting a bit further from the border between Black Devil Sect and Martial Arts Pavilion." Anna answered.

"Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows before falling into deep thought. It took a few seconds to realize the positioning. "Is the place close to the sea?"

Alex closed his eyes, picturing the map of the continent. The Black Devil was situated in the west. If they separated their force into five groups… He furrowed his eyebrows. "They are planning to have a thorough war against us. Before going to discuss their number and other things, we will meet with Anya and Nelson first."

"Understood." They nodded and turned into lights, flowing inside his body. Before Anna disappeared, she left a map for Alex that had been marked. She circled a town, near the sea with a black marker.

Alex calculated his position, the distance, and his direction from the map before using his teleportation array. 

The travel would take at least a week for normal cultivators, but it only took ten minutes for Alex. This, once again, showed how useful the Space Element to the people. At a time, Alex was wondering if there were actually Space Element users that were known to the people.

It was normal for him to think like this, considering he had met two Pure Element users, Letizia and Shelka. However, he had never seen a single Space Element user. In the end, he shook that thought off because it was better to not see them. They wouldn't create trouble for him by their special realm or using their space ability to prevent him from using teleportation. 

After arriving at a town called Ueka, Alex went to the inn and rented a room. "Anya, Nelson, I am in Deso Inn."

"Understood." Their voices resounded through the card before Alex tossed the cards inside his Inventory.

He drew a Sound Insulation Array to prevent them from being spied. After finishing all the preparations, Alex decided to use his tickets first.

"System…" Alex paused for a moment, wondering if he should meet her or not. He, in the end, decided not to meet her because it would take more time. "Use all of my tickets as well as all the summoning coins I will get."

[Processing the Gacha Tickets]

[Gabulg x1] 

[Summoning Coins x5]

[Water Bottle x1] 

…

…

…

[Mountain Sword x1] 

Alex furrowed his eyebrows ever since he saw the first name. "System, did I just see a Gae Bulg? Wait… Is it even a spear? But the name…"

Usually, the system would say another joke or tell him not to mind the small details. But whether she was busy or didn't want to talk to him, the system ignored him.

[Processing the Summoning Coins.] 

[Green Slime (C) x1]

[Swordfish (UC) x1]

[Kappa (C) x1] 

…

…

…

[EXP Cards (R) x1]

"Thanks." Alex couldn't say anything other than a simple thanks. Before planning the other things, he needed to consider another thing. He opened his spirits' status.

[Anna (Dark)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 451675/510000]

[Leoz (Thunder)

Level: 66/80 (6-Star Martial Monarch Stage)

Exp: 213112/570000]

[Nelson (Dark)

Level: 61/80 (1-Star Martial Monarch Stage)

Exp: 378674/520000]

[Fabio Fabotelli(Fire)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 214024/510000]

[Greg (Earth)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 45175/510000]

[Vera Fabotelli (Water)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 45178/510000]

[Jeanne (Thunder)

Level: 62/80 (2-Star Martial Monarch Stage)

Exp: 12421/530000]

[Anya (Light)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 51675/510000]

[Artur (Light)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 4167/510000]

[Jean (Water)

Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage)

Exp: 4675/510000]

Other than Leoz, Nelson, and Jeanne, the rest of the spirits were at the 10-Star Martial Emperor. Alex was lucky enough to get her card with his Summoning Ticket to raise her level. Although the gap had been decreased, she still had four thousand EXPs gap with only less than a hundred thousand more EXPs to level up.

Leoz had the same condition, so he was able to reach the 6-Star Martial Monarch Stage, which wasn't surprising.

At the same time, he took another look at his EXP Cards. He got only seventeen Rare rank EXP Cards.

"This won't be enough to raise their level…" Alex sighed. "I wonder if their number will suffice to increase their EXPs to a certain level, so I only need one or two EXP Cards to level them up… I might not be able to use the EXP Cards on Anna. Considering she would level up after killing a few more thousands… And the cost will be too much for me to bear if I force the EXP Cards." 

"What should I do…" Alex pondered for a moment. When he was thinking about this matter, the sound of knocking doors echoed in the room. 

"Come in," Alex said after checking the two people outside with his Spirit Eyes. He was already too familiar with them to the point he could differentiate their energy from other people.

Nelson opened the door, letting Anya come in first before he came in and closed the door. 

Anya smiled, walked toward him, and sat on the bed. "We can start the operation tomorrow."

Alex shook his head helplessly before asking, "How about giving me information first?"

"Hmm?" Anya tilted her head in confusion. She thought Anna already told him about the mission, but it seemed to be not the case. "So, Anna didn't tell you anything?"

"Nah. It was my decision." Alex shook his head. "I wanted to discuss it with you together."

As soon as he said that, the other spirits came out of their cards.

Anya took a glimpse of their expressions before beginning to explain. "First of all. Their number is fifteen thousand, split into five groups. Most of them are in Martial King. After killing a thousand of their Martial Emperor, they could only spare five hundred more while the other five hundred stayed inside the sect."

Alex agreed with this point. It was already insane to have two thousand Martial Emperors. Even the Joyful Union Sect only had a few hundred at maximum while this place had two thousand. Their quality aside, their quantity was enough to scare most people.

"As expected from the hidden ruler of this continent… How many lives have they actually taken since they were created?" Alex pondered for a few seconds before estimating the number nonchalantly. "A million people, I guess…"

"Must be more, but that's not important for us at the moment." Anya shook her head and changed the topic back. "Anyway, each group will have only one hundred Martial Emperors and ten Martial Monarchs. It could be said they are utilizing half of their sect power at the moment." 

"That's good then. We can truly cripple them with this attack. We don't need to worry about other things because we need to go to the Underworld. They will become too anxious to even cultivate because of this deed. I don't know how long we are going there, but the Black Devil Sect will suffer from our shadow for that long." Alex smirked evilly. 

"Exactly." Anya nodded before taking out a map of the continent. She marked five areas with markers. "We are going to attack these five spots. To search for us, they scatter their forces around the area and slowly make their way toward the right side of the continent."

"Hmm…" Alex narrowed his eyes, feeling something was off. "How many people each group has?"

"Around five hundred. Each group has headquarters with a thousand people. The distance between each other is more than a few kilometers, considering how big the place they need to investigate." Anya explained. 

"We can actually kill them separately if it's like this." Alex narrowed his eyes. 

"Yes. And the plan is-" 

Alex answered before she could. "I will use today to make as many barriers as possible to trap one thousand people. We can use the Rare or SR rank spirits to hold this Array Plate and have them activated it as a signal to attack. Then with their low number, we should be able to wipe them out quickly before annihilating the other groups."

"Yes. That's my plan. However, we also need to fight with time. Let's say we need an hour to kill five hundred people, we can finish the four big groups today. I really want to say this. Lady luck is smiling upon us with how they position themselves." Anya smiled brightly, pointing out many flaws of Black Devil Sect's formation. 

"It can't be helped. Their first priority is to search for our location. These five hundred groups are baits for us to appear. They think they can easily draw us with these baits, and they will be able to buy enough time for the main group to appear. However, they have underestimated us far too much." Alex narrowed his eyes. 

Although the sect master had considered the thousand Martial Emperors he sent to the Martial Arts Pavilion died, he didn't know how they were killed. Without having enough information, this was the best he could do… and Alex took advantage of this.

He smiled. "I will prepare the arrays. You guys can do anything you want."