Chapter 666 - Sunken Island?

"Cease at once!"

The fight stopped the moment this voice reverberated in their ears. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and activated his Teleportation Array, planning to escape. 

However, a space disturbance occurred. Like how he used his Space Plate to destroy the Spatial Blockage earlier, there was a Space Plate right beneath his array. It resurfaced and took a part of his Teleportation Array, like taking a single piece from a puzzle, breaking the array.

"Tch!" 

"Young Man. You misunderstand my intention." An old man appeared together with a female.

The old man had long brown hair and an average build. He didn't look aged but also not energetic. However, Alex found a huge amount of Spiritual Energy inside and realized he also had a Space Element. On the other hand, the woman had short purple hair and eyes. Those eyes looked at Alex as if she hated him.

"I have no plan of attacking you. These two have their senior brother killed a few years ago when he went for a mission, so please forgive their hostility." The old man said before introducing himself. "I am Hao, an Elder from Freedom Sect. May I know your identity, and there is also another question that I would like to ask if you don't mind?"

"I…" Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Anna, wondering if he should escape or not. Unfortunately, he realized that as long as the old man prevented him, he would stand no chance. He sighed and answered him. "Alexander Sirius."

He tried to assess the three people in front of him and checked whether he should bring all his spirits here to kill them and escape. On the other hand, he was also speechless on the outside while screaming inwardly, 'Three Space Element Users? Since when did Space Element become so common?' 

"A good name. Alexander Sirius. Then if I may ask, where did you get your Spatial Gate and Space Plate? The disciples from my sect shouldn't go out with manuals. At the same time, they had an oath not to tell anyone about these two techniques. Hence, there should be someone giving this technique. And that person should have ascended long ago… Now, I'm wondering what is your relationship with the Great Elder of Fire Temple, Maxwell?"

'Great Elder of Fire Temple? What is that?' Alex was dumbstruck. He never heard Maxwell talking about this, so he was wondering what would be the right answer. Upon listening to the great title upon his teacher, he decided to tell the truth. "Master and Disciple."

"!!!" The young ones dropped their jaws as if they just heard something unbelievable, forgetting about the hostility. On the other hand, the old man looked at Alex in an interesting way. "I see. To think such a person has a disciple… I'm sure you have a token from him. Can you show me?"

Alex thought for a moment and took out Maxwell's token. 

The elder also took out a golden token with 'Space' written on it. Suddenly, the two tokens shone. Maxwell's token projected a golden word while the elder's token projected a silver word. They were 'Fire' and 'Space' respectively. 

"It's real," Hao confirmed with a nod before he said respectfully. "Please forgive these two youngsters from having a hostility against you."

Alex looked at Anna, wondering if she had an answer, but the latter could only shake her head. 

Looking at their confusion, Hao coughed and said. "Since you are a Great Elder's disciple, I am wondering if you want to visit our place? Or you can leave this place if you promise us to not say anything about this cave?"

Suddenly, enlightenment struck his brain. "This cave? Or do you mean the place in the bottom of the sea?"

"I see. It seems your master has informed you about this place. So, do you want to come inside?" The elder nodded as if Maxwell's name bore a great prestige. 

Alex furrowed his eyebrows after seeing how the elder misunderstood him. He contemplated before choosing to act along with this. "I'm sorry, but Master only told me about the location. He said to seek this place. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me anything afterward."

"I presume it was Grand Elder's soul, not his real body?"

"Yes."

"Seeing how you still have confusion, I will clarify a little bit." The elder nodded.

'System!' Alex screamed inwardly. 'Can you help me with this?' 

[I am asking your master about this. Please wait a little bit.] 

Hao didn't know about their secret conversation and proceeded with the story. "Ten thousand years ago, the Heavenly Continent hosted all elements. Of course, Space Element was revered there… Until the purge began. So many Space Element users died, and the remaining ones decided to band together. 

"Of course, everyone had some relationship and managed to pull in a few other Martial Artists. At that time, the Great Elder was also a part of this. He helped us and established the platform. There were also others and decided to make a sect called Freedom Sect.

"The reason for this battle was our Space Element, but we could see that there were many other element users who decided to help us instead of massacring us. Hence, we built each element a temple, and the first owner of the Fire Temple was the Great Elder of Fire Temple, Maxwell. There was no sect master in the sect since we usually used a voting system if we had a problem. And the system is running well until today.

"Anyway, the elder decided to take on the Lightning Tribulation and became God. We were filled with grief when we found out that he failed… Fast forward to five thousand years ago, he came back to this place, surprising everyone. Of course, it was a joyous occasion for us.

"He told us that he wanted to challenge the Lightning Tribulation again and succeeded. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry because the hole left by Senior was big. However, he left us a message, telling us that someone would come to this place sooner or later. So, it must be you." Hao finally finished his story. 

Alex thought for a moment. 'Master really came from here, and the person they have been waiting for is me? No, no. Master still had Mithra and Skewes at that time… Did they actually know about their existence and wanted them to come here since they had his token? If that's the case, old Manness should also come here… In other words, it's really me.' 

Suddenly, the system came back. 

[I have dragged him with me. So, you can ask anything from him now.] 

[It's me, Maxwell. The answer to your question is Mithra. I knew she wanted to chase me to the Northern Continent and even to the Heavenly Continent. However, I wanted to see my wife as soon as possible at that time, so I didn't wait for her. I told her if she wanted to follow me, she could come to the Heavenly Continent and sought this place. Unfortunately, the calamity fell on her before that…]

Alex closed his eyes, fully knowing her sad past. "I see. I can also understand why you and she didn't tell me anything about this." 

[Yes. Skewes didn't want to and settled down there, so he obviously didn't know about this place. On the other hand, you didn't relate in any way to this place, so I didn't tell you.]

'Why did Master give her Space Technique?' 

[I hoped she could settle down on the Willow Continent and give the book to you… On the other hand, If she decided to follow me, she needed to give the book to Skewes. From my assumptions, she already lost her book before even going to the Northern Continent and troubled Skewes to recover the lost book.]

'The only problem is… Should I follow them, Master?'

[It's a good place to train your elements. Seeing your current ability, you should learn more about Space Ability, and this place will be the best place. I suggest you enter it since you already discovered it.]

Alex thought for a moment and decided. 'Alright. I will be going with them… Can I go there alone, by the way? Or should I come together with the others? And what is the origin of this place and how they end up at the bottom of the ocean?' 

[It's better to go alone. If you are inside, go to the current Great Elder of Fire Temple. He/she should arrange you a place… And you can request him/her to arrange training in Space Temple. I'm sure they will accept you. As for their history, I will tell you later while moving.]

'I understand.' Alex then looked at Anna. "Go and tell the others I'm going alone."

"Young man. I assume you want to explore this cave and take the treasures, right?" The old man interjected before Anna left. 

"Not exactly, but yeah." Alex nodded.

"Can you do this old man a favor and abandon this idea?"

"May I know why?"

"It's simple. Those treasures are baits. This is the only entrance for our sect. If people from the land come to this place, they will only search for these treasures and get fixated on it. We can hide our entrance easily."

Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. Tell others to go back and don't tell anyone about my current situation. Just tell them I need to leave for a while. Anything else, do as you see fit." 

Anna also got the information from the system and nodded. "I understand. Leave it to me, Master."

"Will that be alright, Elder?" Alex narrowed his eyes. He had emphasized not to tell anyone to assure the elder, and Anna also acted along by calling him 'Master' as in Master and Slave. It made him uncomfortable, but he had no choice. 

"Alright. I agree with it as long as the woman swears a Heavenly Oath. Although you are Great Elder's disciple, I still have no knowledge about you and your companion."

Anna nodded and swore the Heavenly Oath before leaving the place.

"Then, follow me!" The elder was satisfied and led Alex to the entrance.

Alex followed him along with the two disciples.

[I will just add the detail from that person's story. At that time, we were surrounded from all directions and decided to escape from the continent, albeit found no path. The last thing and the most ridiculous thing we did was choosing to escape to the bottom of the sea. We were numbered a few thousand back then and had many elements among us.

[We took a relatively big island. The Earth Element users moved the island to the sea while the water users sank the island. Space Element Practitioners created a powerful Special Realm to protect the island from the water, creating a bubble that enveloped the entire island. Fire users like me built a heating system as you know how cold the seafloor is.

[And so on, it continued until we created a place suitable for living. Of course, we still went to the surface from time to time, but the disciples or elders needed to go through many processes to make sure they were eligible. I actually never informed you because I wasn't sure whether you would get Space Element while you would keep sharpening your Fire Element. That was why I couldn't see the point. I chose to come back to that place to get my Space Element, so if you got your Space Element in that world, it must come from that place… So, yeah. There was no need to inform you. Sorry.]

Alex sighed and nodded. 'I get the gist of it. I will simply train myself here for a while before leaving. Is that alright, Master?' 

[It's fine. There will be a test to leave that place, but I am sure you can. As for other details, you can ask anyone inside that place.]

'Understood.' After that, the system returned to Lin Xingzhi's hand. She had asked Zark to bring Maxwell here as soon as possible, and luckily, he met him with his wife without any trouble. Hence, Zark would bring him back home again after this.

On the other hand, Alex arrived at a certain dark room, filled with a Teleportation Array. He followed the elders inside while the two disciples continued guarding the array.