âPlan 0?â He Liwei looked at Song Shing weirdly from the side. âI didnât get notified on any plan 0? Werenât there only 3 different plans?â
âOh, plan 0 is something I just came up with,â Song Shing said as he strode forward without must care. âItâs the plan where we just ask him nicely and he tells us everything.â
âIsnât that right, brother Yu? You will tell us nicely so we donât have to go through our actual plans, right?â Song Shing asked.
Any other time, Alex wouldâve wanted to say something witty, make fun of them for even thinking that he would give away anything. Right now, however, he wasnât in the mood to do that whatsoever.
He wasnât worried about himself, but Pearl was stuck outside and was already getting ready to fight. But, with nearly 20 people outside the barrier, Alex knew he couldnât let him do that.
He needed to fight.
Alex was about to turn around and hit the barrier behind him when Fu Tao saw him move and brought the weight of his energy spiritual sea on top of Alex.
Alex nearly felt his knee buckle as a force far stronger than his own, nearly twice as strong fell on his spiritual sea.
His mind started hurting from the force, but somehow this wasnât as bad as the first stage of the mask.
He could fight through it.
Just as Alex was distracted from the mental attack, Song Shing threw 3 bottles on the ground near him, from where blood erupted like vines and grabbed onto him.
Alex tried to pull away, but a saint realm attack wasnât something he could easily get away from. Even when using his Saint Qi, he could barely pull his right arm out of the blood constriction when Jin Tengfei arrived with his sword.
Alex parried the sword with one hand and swung back, but the man managed to get away.
He Liwei threw an entire volley of rocks at him, but Alex cut them to pieces before they even arrived at him.
âStrong!â the two non-saints thought, while the two Saints were smiling at the fact that it was a bit more entertaining than they would have expected it to be.
âSince Plan 0 doesnât seem like it will work, why donât we go for Plan 1,â Song Shing said.
âFinally, my turn,â Fu Tao said and once again crashed his entire spiritual sea on top of Alex. It wasnât just the spiritual sea however that was the problem. The main problem was that Fu Tao was using a technique to do so.
Meaning that his spiritual energy was far more potent than just slamming it normally.
Alex was still constricted by the blood on all sides so he couldnât leave. He tried hacking at the blood, even while his mind was in pain, but Song Shing arrived next to him before he could do so.
Alex swung back at Song Shing who protected himself with a blood shield. Even then, his eyes went wide. âStrong!â he thought. His eyes only blazed with more greed when he felt that. âI want that.â
âEat this or your cat will die,â Song Shing said.
Alex frowned and looked at Pearl who was already surrounded outside. âHow did they know?â he thought for a moment before noticing Fu Tao grinning from ear to ear.
He was the one Alex told about saving Pearl from the beast realm. Which meant he was the only one here that couldâve possibly given away any information.
Fury blazed in Alexâs heart. He couldnât believe anyone was capable of going against someone just because they were jealous of them.
He had called the man brother at some point. He felt disgusted he had even thought of him as that.
âEat this pill,â Song Shing forced a pill next to Alexâs face.
Alex saw the pill, sniffed it a little, and immediately knew what it was. It was a Truth Seeking pill.
As soon as he ate it, he would be in a state of mind where he would blurt out every truth hidden deep within him without any possibility of stopping himself.
They wanted him to spill his secrets.
âOkay,â Alex said and ate the pill.
Song Shing was a little surprised that Alex agreed to this. After all, when they were planning, this was one of the throwaway plans as it could have never worked on anyone.
Who in their right mind would willingly want to eat a truth-seeking pill?
It was really Plan 2 that they were relying on because the chances of Plan 1 working were really, really low.
âHey, I canât complain though,â he thought and flicked the pill onto Alexâs mouth.
Alex gave him an angry look and swallowed the pill. As he did, he remembered the face the clone Song Zun made after he had eaten the pill.
When he burned the pill in his stomach until it was nothing but Qi, he looked back up and emulated the emotions that were on Song Zunâs face all those years ago.
âIt worked? So easily?â Jin Tengfei held his sword in his hand and a look of disbelief on his face.
âYeah, we can start asking questions now,â Song Shing said. He too was having a hard time believing it worked.
Sounds of fighting rang out from behind them where Pearl had started fighting against the True Emperors, but these 4 had never really cared about Pearl.
âTell us your secrets,â He Liwei asked impatiently.
âIâŠâ Alex started to speak. âIâŠâ
âYes, go on,â he urged.
âI havenât taken a bath in years,â Alex said.
âWhat?â He Liwei looked confused. Was that the secret behind his strength? No way. Cultivators never really took a bath. They could clean themselves with just Qi.
âIdiot, ask specific questions,â Jin Tenfei said from the side and looked towards Alex. âCan you use Sword Aura?â
âNo,â Alex said without hesitation. There wasnât even a need to lie here.
âThen how do you have Sword Auraâs property with only Sword Qi?â he asked.
âWhat?â Alex looked at the man with a confused look. âSword Auraâs property with sword Qi? What does he mean?â
âI donât know,â Alex said, unable to hide away the confused look on his face.
âWhat do you mean you donât know?â Jin Tengfei asked.
âI donât know anything about Sword Aura aside from the fact that it comes after Sword Qi,â Alex said. To his own surprise, he hadnât lied yet.
âHow is your spiritual sense so strong?â Fu Tao decided to get his question in as well.
âI ate a lot of pills,â Alex said without hesitation.
Fu Tao frowned. He had done that too, but his spiritual sense wasnât nearly as big as Alexâs. Did Alex really eat an amazing pill⊠or was he lying?
âHow is your blood aura so strong?â Song Shing couldnât wait at all. He wanted that answer right now.
âMy blood aura?â Alex was too taken back to even think of an answer immediately. How was his blood aura so strong? He didnât have a definite answer himself.
Maybe it was his constitution? Maybe it was his dense Qi? Or maybe it was even the fact that he had the White Tigerâs blood essence in him.
However, none of these answers was something that he could tell.
âI donât know,â Alex said, trying not to make it sound like it was a contemplated answer.
However, Song Shing wasnât duped. He couldnât help but feel that the answer was wrong and in fact, he was most likely lying.
Which was to say⊠âdid the pill even work?â
âI thought so too,â Fu Tao said from the side.
Alex frowned, but he didnât show it on his face. He couldnât let them know he wasnât telling the truth or they would hurt him.
He wasnât worried about death, of course. There was no chance these people would kill him and miss out on so many secrets.
But, there were other things they could do to him, that he didnât want to suffer from.
The most important one of them being losing Pearl. He was already fighting, and Alex needed to get to him quickly.
However, going through 2 saints and 2 peak True Emperors wasnât an easy task even for him.
âLet me see if these are the truths,â Fu Tao said and strolled forward. âGuard me.â
Song Shing and the rest nodded and got ready to attack Alex anytime. A few vials of blood flew around Song Shing.
21 swords flew in the sky, all physical swords this time around.
He Liwei also put out a few artifacts that he had made in the image of weapons from his own homeworld. One of which looks suspiciously like a bazooka.
Fu Tao came close to Alex and while still pressuring Alex mentally, placed his forehead on Alex.
Alex felt something try and breach his mental area. Fu Tao was trying to pierce into his spiritual sea where he would get information on everything using the secret techniques of the Fu family.
Just like Zexi, the high prince of the Crimson empire did all those years ago.
Alex remembered the pain, the near-death experience he had to go through, even when he was just a suppressed soul, watching his cloneâs soul fight in the sky against Zexi.
That were some of the only memories he had of the spiritual sea from before he had gained back his control. A bad memory.
And now, Fu Tao was trying to do the same thing again. The same bad thing.
âYou want to get inside my mind?â Alex thought and fully lowered his mental defenses.
âCome.â