Chapter 170
"With his strategic mind, becoming a regional emperor wouldn’t be considered a waste of his talents."
Although letting Garret escape would bury some hidden dangers for himself, Alex didn’t take it to heart too much.
He had accidentally fallen for Garret’s trick. He wasn’t forcefully having his IQ lowered to let the tiger return to the mountain like those villains in the original novel.
Having experienced this once, he definitely wouldn’t fall for it a second time. When they bumped into each other next, he would just annihilate this old fox and be done with it.
Alex suddenly noticed something. He bent down to focus his gaze. A look of surprise revealing itself in his eyes.
Hanging on a branch of this dead log was a storage ring.
He picked it up, poured his spiritual energy into it and sensed carefully. Stored inside were exactly the secret manuals and resources the Noir Family had plundered from their Hale Holy Land.
"Wanting to use these resources to express your apology, so I won’t hunt you down. Thereby exchanging them for your life?" Alex said with deep interest.
"It seems I shouldn’t call you an old fox, but rather an old sea cucumber."
The sea cucumber is a very magical creature. When being preyed upon by enemies, its life-saving method is to spit out its own internal organs and give them to the enemy. Thereby exchanging them for its life.
A sea cucumber that has lost its internal organs is admittedly severely drained of vitality. But after a period of time, it can recover completely to its original state.
It is exactly this wisdom of sacrificing the saving to save the life that has allowed this creature with absolutely no self-preservation power to survive for tens of thousands of years without going extinct.
This Garret’s behavior today was actually quite similar to a sea cucumber.
"Alright, since you’ve even spit out your internal organs, then I will spare your life." Alex smiled faintly.
"However, the next time we meet, it won’t be that simple."
Immediately, Alex clasped his hands together. Fusing the souls and blood essence of the over a thousand Noir Family disciples together.
They transformed into a red dot. Converged at his fingertip. Pressed onto the shell of the spirit beast egg.
The spirit beast egg instantly absorbed all the power. Its entire body enveloped in a faint red luster.
Alex could sense that the unknown little guy inside the eggshell had just eaten a mouth-watering, satisfying meal. Burping while contentedly patting its belly.
He couldn’t help but grin. Nodding with a satisfied smile.
"Good boy!"
"Daddy has already done everything he can to help you."
"Next, it’s going to rely on your own hard work!"
...
After slaughtering the Noir Family to the last man, Alex was in no rush to return to the Divine Blade Sect.
Instead, while passing through the Heavenly Flame Capital, he quietly slipped into the city.
The major Saint Lineages participating in the Dao Vindication Assembly were all resting in the guest palaces surrounding the Azure Phoenix Pavilion.
Alex accurately located the one carved with the Hale crest and used teleportation to pass through the restriction-laden palace walls, entering the hall.
However, the moment he entered, a gust of fragrant hot steam blew right into his face.
"Hmm? A bathroom?" Alex focused his gaze. In front of him was a massive bathtub.
The bathtub emitted the fragrance of roses. An incredibly exquisite petal bath.
And soaking amidst the petals was none other than Lara. Her skin as white as snow. Completely stark naked.
Lara and Alex locked eyes. The atmosphere becoming awkwardly silent.
"Sa... Saint..." Lara’s face abruptly changed. She subconsciously wanted to let out a scream.
Alex hurriedly teleported forward, covered her mouth, speaking through mental transmission.
"Don’t make a sound."
"The people from the major Saint Lineages are right nearby. Don’t let them know I am here."
"Hurry up and put your clothes on properly. I will wait for you in your room."
His figure flashed, teleported away again.
Arriving at Lara’s room, he sat by the table and poured himself a cup of tea. While drinking, he slightly calmed his mood.
Two minutes later, Lara walked out of the bathroom. Neatly dressed. Her cheeks still flushed red. Unsure if it was due to the heat of the bath or uncontrollable shyness.
Alex appeared extremely calm. Smiling faintly. "Come, sit."
Lara came over and sat across from him. "Saint Lord, weren’t you looking for the Vault of Divine Blade Heart at the Divine Blade Sect? Why have you come to the Heavenly Flame Capital?"
"The overall situation at the Divine Blade Sect is pretty much settled. When the time comes, I just need to take the Vault of Divine Blade Heart away." Alex smiled faintly.
"How is the situation on your end?"
"How is the Dao Vindication Assembly progressing?"
"Saint Lord, you have no idea. The arena battles for this year’s Dao Vindication Assembly have truly been unprecedentedly fierce." Mentioning the Dao Vindication Assembly, Lara instantly became interested. Completely tossing her previous shyness to the back of her mind.
"For some unknown reason, the strength of the major Saint Lineages has all quietly improved by a large margin."
"Although their margin of improvement isn’t as massive as our Hale’s disciples, it still caught everyone off guard."
"Because it was difficult to determine a victor, every match required fighting a bitter battle for a long time. The longest match actually lasted a full day and night."
"The Heavenly Flame Empress specifically extended the arena phase from the original seven days to fourteen days. Allowing the major Saint Lineages to properly compete and determine the winners."
"Fourteen days?" Alex did a quick calculation in his mind and smiled.
"By that calculation, wouldn’t today happen to be the final day?"
"That’s right." Lara nodded.
"Based on the points from the previous days, the few stronger families have already been confirmed to advance to the Secret Realm Treasure Hunt."
"And today’s arena match was entirely a desperate, life-and-death struggle between the Ashen family and the Vire family."
"In order to fight for the final spot, both of these major families brought out all their trump cards and dispatched their strongest elites."