933 A Sword

To their surprise, the killing intent was concentrated here. Unless you were a God Rank Expert, you would find yourself in trouble to just stay alive in this area. The killing intent itself lowered their strength twice more than the Inner Area.

Alex would probably be fine there, but Aria was a different case. Either way, he knew that the killing intent originated from the core area and probably the center of this island. The people might already know about it, but it didn't change the fact that they couldn't find the exact reason.

And this one made him even more curious to the point he wanted to go deeper right away. Unfortunately, he still had Aria with him, so he decided to play along with the schedule they had.

When the two weeks almost passed, they had killed around five thousand monsters. If the sect would pay them a bit higher from the market, they might need to pay them around one million Spirit Crystal. It should be enough for months.

Alex stood above the tree, watching the situation in the core area. Aria walked toward him and asked, "Do you want to go there? I will be fine here. Thanks to you, I can fight 2-Star Saint monsters without a problem while standing toe to toe against a 3-Star Saint monster. As for the 4-Star, I don't think they can kill me if I decide to run away."

Alex glanced at her and thought for a moment. "I do feel interested in whatever the cause of this massive killing intent, but I am still wondering if I should bring you with me or not. There is a chance that this will be a big opportunity for you, so I am contemplating it right now."

"Bringing me? I think I shouldn't go because I will only be a burden for you." She shook her head, rejecting the idea.

"Well, I can come and leave after confirming what it is, but I will try to understand as much as I can during that time." Alex stroked his chin while he kept glancing at Aria again and again.

"It's fine. You don't need to mind. Also, with me being here, I can say that we are separated to kill more monsters. You are already mysterious, and only I know your identity. That's why I believe they will think you are a kind of shadow, making them focus on me." She smiled, trying to convince Alex.

"Thank you for the consideration, but I am thinking about the chance of you getting whatever it is to create another typhoon in the sect." Alex nodded. "I guess you are too weak for that."

"Yeah. They will question me instead of protecting me." She nodded with a smile, knowing what kind of fate she'd have if she had something she couldn't protect.

"Now go. Just tell me what it is because I am curious about it as well." She smiled.

"Take out my token."

She nodded and took out the token he gave back in the exit of the sword cave.

Alex grabbed the token and handed her a new one. This token had not only a tracker function but also a transmission function, allowing Aria to give signals to Alex in case something happened.

"If you are in danger, channel your energy to this token. If you think you will die in one second or I won't be able to reach you before you die, pour the energy twice. And with this token, I will know your location, so yeah, this is the only thing I can give you right now."

"That's fine for me. Thank you." She smiled.

"Then, I will go first." Alex waved his hand and entered the core area. Aria kept watching his back until he disappeared in the horizon before going in another direction to kill some more monsters.

"Yeah. Be careful."

"You too." Alex nodded and leaped toward the core area, flying straight to where the energy originated. To his surprise, the deeper he got, the more life was taken away. He realized that the trees around them had no leaves and all the leaves on the ground were either half-decomposed or withered away.

Even so, Alex kept marching forward with his Spirit Eyes. He made sure that no one was around him, so they didn't coincidentally meet or sense each other.

Alex even thought about summoning another N squad for this but realized it should be fine unless there were another God Rank Expert in the area.

The journey took two hours before Alex could finally see a giant ball of red energy underground.

"This…" Alex sucked a cold breath and halted his step just to observe this ball.

However, he soon sensed a presence coming from his right and glanced to see whether it was a human or a monster.

When he realized it was a horse, he used the power of his Divine Body and struck the 8-Star Martial Saint horse, killing it in a single slash.

"The energy is not Spiritual Energy, but a pure Killing Intent. Can something extract that amount of killing intent?" Alex narrowed his eyes.

[I am not very sure, but there is a possibility it is coming from an object instead of a living being.]

"You are not talking like that type of thing, right?" Alex twitched his eyebrows and remembered a certain weapon that would exist in every single story. The one that was related to killing. Some sort of blood or killing weapon.

[Yes. I am talking about that. With the amount of energy, I doubt any human can take it without going insane. That is including you.]

"…" Alex fell silent. That was true, so he didn't correct her words. Instead, this sword piqued his interest. Despite the overbearing description, in every story, the weapon wouldn't do anything to him unless he touched it or something. Even so, he asked Lin Xingzhi first, not wanting to make the same mistake as he did back in the lower world where he watched the war progression despite knowing how dangerous it was.

"Just like the consciousness where you told me it was bad to have them stay alive, do you have any information about this?" Alex asked while recalling every bit of his memory to see if he had any knowledge related to this kind of phenomenon.

[I think it's fine to see it as you can simply burn the killing intent with your Pure Fire.]

"Ah, I see. I almost forgot about this since I couldn't use this much with Aria beside me." Alex nodded and immediately enveloped his body with Pure Fire. And it turned out his flame was very effective. It burned the killing intent in his surroundings.

His body was finally free from the pressure. "This feels nice."

[If you are going there, there is a high chance that you will lighten the killing intent that pressured this island.]

"Yeah. I found it a few days ago that the killing intent was actually just recycling. If I burn everything here, it will disappear. However, it will bring me a lot of attention. Even though I can escape by using my Teleportation Array, the world will surely go crazy and make a full-fledged investigation. I am afraid they will find me, so I won't do it." Alex nodded.

[Agree.]

"And the killing intent must have originated from the people of the past that used this island to fight against each other. That was why it could be so bountiful and strong." Alex nodded while thinking about how he should approach this sword.

[Are you really going?]

"Yeah. I want to feel this killing intent because I never know there is a type of killing intent that can lower one's strength. Although there is an accumulation of thousands of people dying on this island, I still want to see this strength, so I can put my own enemy in this situation, giving me a big advantage in a fight."

[Oh, I see. That's fine, I guess. But make sure you don't burn or destroy the situation.]

"Yeah." Alex nodded and scanned the entire area, trying to find the entrance, but it was hard to find.

The place itself was still within the forest, so it was a bit hard to see his surroundings with how absurd the energy was. In the end, Alex took a deep breath and kept following the current of this killing intent until he found a tree that had no different than any others.

The killing intent was sucked inside the tree, making Alex curious.

He tapped the three and used the Spiritual Energy to inspect the tree before smiling. "This tree is dead. And the trunk is empty, so this is only an empty figure to hide this type of thing.

Knowing that, he pushed the three to the side without a problem as there was no root to begin with. He then found a hole that was perfect for a normal human to go in.

He jumped inside the hole and waved his hand to use the Spiritual Energy to move the tree again, closing the entrance.

It took him a few seconds before landing on the ground.

"Hmm. It's not that deep." Alex commented while using his Spirit Eyes to measure the killing intent.

It was a kind of limestone cave without an entrance. The hole earlier was completely artificial, so the oxygen in this cave was pretty thin. Even so, Alex didn't really need oxygen since he could freely travel in outer space.

What he needed was the answer to what he perplexed at the moment.

At the end of the cave, he found a big room where everything began. As soon as he reached the room, he found a black sword that had a similar shape to the one he saw in the Sword Cave. However, everything shiny was replaced by a dark and red ominous color.

As if responding to him, the sword released its energy and a certain shadow formed right before it. The figure was a female kid at the same age as Dawn Breaker. Instead of wearing cute clothes, this one wore slightly revealing clothes and had a pair of horns on her head.

She glanced at Alex with her blood-red eyes before brushing that black hair with her hands. "To think there is someone who can find me… I wonder if you are that competent or other people are just too incompetent. Mister, do you want to be my Master?"