Chapter 978 - Questions

"This one?" Alex thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I think we have nowhere to go from this small place. The only way is to go up or teleport."

"So, we go up now?"

"Wait a minute. Just wait until Leka advances to Martial Saint. It will take one or two hours." Alex nodded.

"Alright then. Can you tell me anything about this world's inhabitants?"

Alex looked at her for a while before shaking his head. "I will need to refuse to do that. For now, I don't have a plan to tell you anything. I need to make sure if this is their worth first before doing anything."

He started contemplating whether to use Njomo to check his surroundings or not and decided to do it after sending a thought transmission to Njomo that had been hiding inside her shadow.

'Njomo. Can you jump to my shadow and reveal yourself?'

'Woof.'

'Alright.' Alex felt he was saying "yes," so he didn't hesitate to call him out. "Njomo. Are you there?"

A figure emerged from his shadow as if responding to his call. He lowered his head to Alex, greeting him politely.

Aria opened her mouth in surprise. She never saw Njomo this whole time, so she was completely baffled by the entire situation. After all, this meant there was another Divine Beast that had been hiding in his shadow this whole time, and not a single of them could see it.

Alex ignored her reaction and asked. "I am sorry for asking you this, but can you check our surroundings. It can be anything. I just want to know whether this world is the one I know."

Njomo nodded and turned into a shadow, flying upward. Aria couldn't see it as if Njomo just vanished from the world once again. She kept glancing at Njomo's previous location and Alex back and forth with a dumbfounded look.

"You have become too curious when you can see." Alex fell silent. "I am not mocking about your disability, but I am starting to worry. Just like a poor man who suddenly gets wealth that can only appear in their dream will use all the money without thinking about his spending at all.

"If you are becoming too curious, I am worried because you will be in danger sooner or later." Alex scratched the back of his head. "I had once experienced that. When I had little power and became a bit too proud, I actually decided to do something foolish like observing a war that was clearly beyond my power.

"At that time, I almost died. If not because of my wife, I wouldn't live here. This is not for shutting you down, but this advice is for you to calm down. I know that you are excited, but that excitement will slowly go down after a period of time.

"It's fine to be curious and question everything, but yours is…Anyway, it's better for you to experience it yourself and hope that you don't make a mistake that you can't escape from it." Alex sighed.

Aria couldn't find a single word to say to Alex. She perfectly understood his meaning and took a deep breath, reflecting upon her current self. It was true that she had been questioning many things after getting permission from Alex to use her Sword Eye to capture few important details, but her reaction was too obvious.

It could be picked up by enemies. That might be the reason why Alex reprimanded her as her tutor. Knowing her mistake, she lowered her head and said, "I apologize. I will reflect on my action and thank you for reminding me."

"It's fine. People will change with time, so I don't blame you. I just want you to remember that everything has a consequence." Alex smiled and patted her shoulders.

After that, she decided to use the waiting time to think about her actions this recently and notice how different she had become the past few months. Everything started to change when she finally learned the Sword Eye.

When seeing this point of view, she just noticed that the Sword Eye was actually a double-edged sword for her. There was nothing such as a perfect technique, and this one might be the weakness, specifically for someone like her.

Meanwhile, Alex kept watching his surroundings, trying to find anything suspicious but to no avail.

Two hours finally passed, and Spiritual Energy suddenly fluctuated, becoming the mark of Leka's breakthrough.

"Have you finished, Leka?" Alex smiled and stretched his hand for her to leap.

Leka didn't leap first. Instead, she looked at Alex and hugged his neck as if it was the way saying her thanks.

Alex only smiled at her before feeling another fluctuation of energy. To his surprise, Leka actually initiated a life and death contract with the same condition as Sherry.

"You…" Alex was surprised by the sudden action and asked. "Are you fine with this?"

"Squeak." She nodded before the Spiritual Energy surrounded her and increased her cultivation even further.

2-Star Martial Saint

3-Star Martial Saint

4-Star Martial Saint

The energy finally began stabilizing itself inside her body after reaching 4-Star Martial Saint. She looked at Alex and sent a thought transmission. 'Master…Can you hear me?'

'Yes. You can send a thought transmission now?'

'Because of the life and death contract, I am able to get closer to Master's ideal form to a certain degree. In that contract, I gained a bit of understanding of your normal language, thus allowing me to talk with Master.' She nodded before looking at Aria, who gradually opened her eyes because of this commotion.

"This is Leka. She can talk with a thought transmission just now. She will surely have a talk with you later, but I need to sort my thoughts first." Alex explained the whole situation to Aria.

"I understand." She nodded with a smile. It might be due to her meditation earlier. She looked calmer than before. Although it was a bit of a force, Alex believed she would become a great person in the long run.

However, Alex had no time to check on her and turned to Leka first. 'Do you know anything about me?'

'Not really. I only know that Master is a God. That's all.'

'I see. At first, I am planning to have you as my friend and have an equal contract…'

'Don't think about it, Master. I can feel that you are different from others. I can smell a fox, birds, and a monkey in your Spiritual Energy. In other words, you must have a contract with them. Seeing that your energy is pure, I feel like I can trust you.'

'Is that so?' Alex smiled before explaining to her. 'The fox is my wife. She is a Celestial Fox that governs over the fire element. As for the birds, they are my contracted beast as well as husband and wife. There is also one more which is their child, but they are not together at the time being. As for the monkey, I don't have a contract with him yet, and he won't be with me.'

'Well, I don't really understand the complicated stuff like that. Anyway, that is my basis for choosing the contract. I know that I am basically forcing this, but please take care of me, Master. I will do my best to help you too.'

'We are helping each other, but if you are sincere, I will probably treat you as my family.' Alex nodded.

'Hehe…Should we explore this first then?'

'There is no other way though?'

'I can certainly feel it. Maybe because you gave me that spear earlier, my senses are heightened now. I can locate it. It's beneath us, two or three times the fall we have earlier.'

'Really?'

'Yes. Actually, there are a few layers of rock like this underneath us, but they are not that thick. I think Master should have no problem in breaking them and head down.'

'Two or three times of thirty kilometers…No wonder I can't see it. My Spirit Eyes are not capable of seeing through that far.' Alex nodded. 'Wait a minute. Your element is not Earth, right? I feel like you are having a special element but also like one of my wives.'

'I am Nature Element, but mostly about rock and other materials. If it's about plants, I can't feel anything.' She explained.

'No wonder.' Alex nodded. He perfectly understood now why this mouse was called the locater of Spirit Crystal Mine. He simply sensed the rock formation and Spiritual Energy that coated it. As for Metal? It might be an impurity in his sense. The same applied to herbs or pills.

'Before that, I want to ask you a few more things.'

'I understand. What do you want to ask me?'

'Why were you inside that cage?'

'Originally, I was sacrificed here. They planned to use me to find sources of energy.'

'And that were Spirit Crystals Mines.'

'Yes. I found many mines in this world so they could build this big tunnel. If I were not wrong, they called this tower or natural tower. After being used, I was thrown away and locked inside that.' She sighed.

'Really? Then do you want to have your revenge?'

She took a moment to answer him, but her answer amazed him. 'No. I don't plan to involve Master in this because I believe this matter and Master is a separate matter. Besides, if they don't lock me up for three thousand years, I won't meet Master. There is something that I have been wondering, what kind of world is outside there. Is there only a single me? I would like to know.'

'You are curious like my sword, eh?' Alex smiled.

'Are you talking about me?' Eve pouted, entering their conversation. 'I couldn't see the outside world this whole time since we were stuck in this world. Well, I found interesting things in Outer Space, so I am satisfied for the time being.'

'Haha…The one talking is my Sword Spirit, Eve. I will let you see her later, but for now, let's finish our matter first.' Alex paused. 'The second question. If you don't have any more desire in this world, are you going to follow me in exploration? Although I am happy to let you do just that, I can't really afford to show you to anyone else other than those I trust.

'I still need to do a few things for around one hundred years. After that, you can follow me on my travels. What do you think about it?'

'I have been here for three thousand years. One hundred years is nothing.'

'You answered like Eve here.'

'I see a comrade.' Eve confirmed with a playful tone.

'Haha…Anyway, my last question is…Are you afraid to die?' Alex smiled.

'Nope. It was true that I was afraid in the past, but when you got abused by them and locked up for too long, that sense would become dull. For me, I just believe and enjoy whatever I can.'

'In that case…' Alex paused for a moment, asking Lin Xingzhi to do something.

Suddenly, a blue notification appeared that only Alex and Leka could see this.

'This is my power. Since we have a life and death contract, you should experience this yourself as soon as possible. Just make sure you don't tell anyone about this because this is one of my biggest secrets.'

'I understand. Besides, you can take my life at any time if you think I have talked about it to anyone.' She nodded.

'Well, we might get separated soon for the time being, and you will be staying in my world. I don't think people will use and abuse you like the people here since I will be asking my wife for it. However, don't be too proud of that as well because even if you are my contracted beast, you are the newest one there.'

'Don't worry. After knowing how to feel about getting abused, you will definitely see that you won't make people feel like that.' She nodded.

'Alright then. I am looking forward to our cooperation, Leka.'

'Yes, Master.'

'Now, it's time to drill this place.' Alex smiled and asked, 'Are you ready, Eve?'

'Of course. Do you want to use a single slash to pierce the bottom layer?'

'Haha!'