Chapter 643 - Anna's Punishment

Like how she treated Alex in the previous life when she was angry, she did the same to the current Alex and somehow left a mark in his heart. 

For a whole day, Anna released her Dark Butterfly to control Alex's and Sherry's body.

The first hour, 

Anna brought him and Sherry to a room while smiling evilly. Alex and Sherry couldn't control their body, let alone having their Pure Fire to erase the binding.

Suddenly, Anna took many clothes out of her Space Ring. The clothes were for males and females, so Alex thought the male was for him while the female was for Sherry.

Albeit, everything was betrayed when Anna forced him to move closer together with Sherry and stripped them down. In front of Sherry was a butler outfit. Sherry wore the white shirt, black pants, and the black vest. Anna didn't forget to prepare the shoes and white gloves as well as the one a round half glasses. Anna tried to dress her like an old butler by this outfit. 

After that, she tied her hair into a ponytail. Sherry placed her hand on her right chest before bowing to Anna.

Anna observed her from top to bottom and was satisfied with her own efforts. She then glanced at Alex with a dangerous glint as she grabbed a single piece of maid outfit.

Having no ability to say anything, glancing, or signaling everything, Alex was scared still. His consciousness still saw everything.

Alex put on the maid outfit along with every single accessory. Anna even put on makeup for him, so he looked like a real maid.

Anna made him drop to the ground, put his finger on his mouth, and acted all the way.

It wasn't a scary thing and endangered him in any way, but the impact was so powerful that Alex wanted to seal his consciousness away. He realized everything that Jeanne said about torture and learned how terrifying mental torture is. It could be said that the pain that he had gone through to refine his body couldn't be compared to this one. 

After getting satisfied with the first outfit, Anna continued with the second outfit for both Alex and Sherry. At one point, Alex's eyes intertwined with Sherry's. Even though they couldn't speak, give any signal, or blink their eyes, they knew both thought the same thing. It was to end this suffering. 

Yet, the torture had just started. Sometimes Alex got a male outfit while Sherry also cross-dressed, acting as if two boys loved each other. Sometimes Anna wanted the opposite and made it look like two girls in love.

Only after around twenty hours, Anna finally got out of the room, feeling satisfied. She didn't forget to leave a message for them.

Alex and Sherry didn't look at the message first when her dark energy finally dissipated as they gradually regained the control of their body. Instead, they fell on their butts, leaning on each other's back. 

Alex was covered with sweat and wanted to cry but no tears. Sherry didn't have as much damage as him, but still said, "Master…"

"Sherry…" Alex also called her name weakly as he said, "Let us not anger her again, alright?"

"I absolutely agree." Sherry nodded. "Though I can feast my eyes as well with different types of Master. Hehe…"

Alex fell into silence before letting a long sigh. Other than the mental trauma that Anna gave him, Alex realized one important lesson that Anna might intentionally want him to learn. 

Having his Pure Fire that could purify any curse or poison might be nice and powerful. However, there was one weakness that Alex still needed to watch out. 

After releasing his Hell Inferno, he would be in his weakest state. If his enemy somehow controlled his mind in his most vulnerable state, he realized he couldn't channel even a little bit of Spiritual Energy in his body. In other words, he couldn't control his Pure Fire to remove whatever method they used on him.

At a time like this, his spirits might need to fight him to the death or kill the one that controlled him. He realized how dangerous mind control could be.

Much to his dismay, Alex felt the need to thank Anna for this valuable lesson. He felt that fighting his own families and wives would be more painful than having this type of mental torture.

Anna didn't punish the other spirits because she knew Alex would have recalled them before anything could happen. This was especially true when the Inventory could be shared. The others could help with a single summon, so Anna didn't really have to worry about it. However, Alex was different. He couldn't be summoned or recalled, so there was no way he could save himself from this type of situation. 

Sherry also did the same. She might be able to hide inside Alex's flame, but it required him to be near, and there was no way they would be near for 24/7 for thousands of years. That was why Sherry also needed to know this important lesson. 

Alex looked at the ceiling and sighed again before glancing over the note that Anna left behind. He waved his hand, and Spiritual Energy carried the note over. 

Sherry also climbed from behind and put her head on his shoulder, reading the note as well. 

'If you try to do something like this again, then expect others to watch all the things that happened in this room too. I will make sure at least the others could see this when I do this again.' 

Alex and Sherry shuddered. Sherry was fine since she could feast her eyes with the cross-dressing Alex, but it would be different if the others watched her as well. Alex was far even worse and felt he wouldn't be able to maintain his pride as the leader of this group any longer.

"Well, we still can use half of our strength for this. I will fill fifty percent and you with the other fifty percent. We indeed went overboard by using two hundred percent strength in that technique. Though it was only for that, we could almost kill everyone." Alex nodded.

"I understand. I will just pour fifty percent of my power in the future. At the very least, we still have strength left, so Elder Sister Anna wouldn't be angry. In case she was still planning to do the same, we will have enough strength to escape from her grasp." Sherry nodded furiously. 

Alex suddenly stood up and changed his clothes while Sherry did the same. 

"Sherry, I want to rest first. If you want to go outside, you can do it alone." Alex sighed and jumped onto the bed. Even though he sounded fine, the damage was still on his heart, so he wanted to have a good rest first before coming out and meeting anyone. 

Sherry simply sat on the bed and accompanied him without saying anything. Slowly but surely, Alex closed his eyes, falling into sleep. It might be the first time after a year that Alex finally had a good sleep. They might not need sleep, but it was certainly useful to recover their tired heart. 

Alex slept soundly for a few hours before he woke up, only to find an empty bedroom. It seemed Sherry had left after he fell asleep. 

He rubbed his fuzzy eyes and gradually rose from the bed, reaching a water bottle from his Inventory. He didn't need to drink, but he still felt his throat dry after a sleep despite becoming a cultivator.

'It seems Sherry didn't leave anything?' Alex thought as he checked the room. He activated his Spirit Eyes to find everyone's position before realizing someone was waiting for him outside the door.

"Artur, come in," Alex called the name as if he knew who was outside. 

Not long after, the person opened the door and walked inside the room. "Have you finished your rest, Young Master?"

"I'm sorry." Alex nodded and apologized.

"Don't be. It's normal to be tired. If we, spirits, don't have the private space inside our Spirit Cards, we might also be tired." Artur smiled.

"Where are the others?" Alex asked.

"They are inside the ritual room, waiting for you to remove the Blood Gem."

"Can you lead me there?" 

"Your wish is my command." Artur nodded.

Alex stood up and stretched his hands, asking Artur to lead the way. They went through a few corridors before reaching a room with a giant gate. The corridor had the same decorations as any other buildings he had visited. Only a simple wooden wall and white ceiling, making him wonder if this world actually had a good sense of decorations.

He knew that most buildings actually had a grand front that made even a cheap building look grand. However, almost every building he visited had this bland corridor all the time as if they only focused on the outside, not the inside. 

The gate itself didn't have any decorations, except the two red words written on it.

'Blood Ritual.' 

Alex read the words and realized it was really Blood Gem. Artur opened the gate and asked Alex to go in.

Everyone already gathered inside, looking at the red thing in the middle of the room.

Alex was surprised when he looked at a small round thing in the middle of the room and slowly walked closer to it.

*Gasp—!* Alex opened his mouth wide as if he couldn't believe what he just saw. It wasn't very clear from afar, but Alex could see it when it was in front of his eyes. 

It was a heart and a living one on top of that. It looked like a human heart and was still beating. He remembered that Atlas said this was created a few thousand years ago and shuddered by a few thousand years old living heart.

However, Alex still needed to keep on his promise to bring this Blood Gem or Heart to Atlas, and he wasn't going to renege the promise. 

Before closing in, he could see many symbols around the Blood Gem, creating a barrier that locked this Gem inside. Alex thought for a moment and solved the barrier within a few minutes as if it wasn't a challenge for him. 

Alex slowly reached out to this Blood Gem with his hand. Luckily, there was no blood, smell, or anything that made it look gross. He checked the Blood Gem with his Spirit Eyes only to find a huge amount of Blood Energy and Souls stored inside. This was a matter that Atlas needed to solve, so he simply deactivated his Spirit Eyes and tossed the Blood Gem inside his Inventory. Still, the energy was truly enormous as even his hand looked like it wanted to melt by the amount of energy alone.

He fell into deep thought for a minute before shaking his head, turning to Anna.

"Anna, what is our condition?" 

"We have finished cleaning up this sect, removing everything related to this sect, including the Blood Pills and Berserk Pills. There was also a mountain of corpses in the opposite building, but rest assured, there is nothing like that anymore. We have looked at every nook and corner and confirmed it." Anna nodded.

"I see. Then there should be no problem in leaving this place, right?"

"Yes."

Alex thought for a moment and came to a decision. "There are still two weeks before the Fire God Clan comes to this place. I'm going to use this chance to solve the barrier for those people and return this Blood Gem as per agreement. After that, we will be discussing how we want to intercept them and train a little bit more before going to the Heavenly Continent. Is there any objection?"

None of them said anything, even Anna and Anya.

Alex then nodded before staring at Anna for a few seconds. "Anna… Thank you for the lesson."

Anna smiled gently and said, "No problem. But the note is not an empty threat… just for your information."

Alex shuddered as he said, "Don't worry. I'm not going to make this same mistake unless I need to."

Anna didn't like the latter part, but still let him go.