Sword slashes consisted of two different parts.
One was the Intent that formed it, and the other was the Energy that powered it. They were both, in a way, the same thing. The Intent was the strength of the attack, and the strength was the Intent.
However, when Alex released his sword slash and it crossed the threshold, the Energy portion of the attack was acted on differently than the Intent portion. It immediately tried to squash all of it.
However, while it squashed the Energy, it didn’t attack the Intent. And since the Intent and the Energy were so intrinsically linked, the restriction couldn’t destroy it entirely.
Hence, the sword slash survived, while being severely weaker than regular.
Unlike his sword slash, however, his Qi attacks held no Intent at all. The Intent for the attack came during the formation and didn’t linger after that. The attacks themselves were supposed to do everything else, so there was no reason to place Intent into them.
After all, the only reason a sword slash had Intent was because that was what created and maintained the Sword Qi and Sword Aura of the attack.
The Dao was similar. To use a Dao was to constantly employ one’s Intent aligned with that Dao. That was why it didn’t vanish beyond the 3-meter threshold as well. It did get suppressed in power but never fully.
‘So anything with a modicum of energy without an Intent constantly keeping it up is destroyed, huh?’ Alex thought. ‘So if my hypothesis is correct…’
He released his Spiritual Sense and did so with the clear Intent of stretching it further away from him. Up until the 3-meter mark, nothing happened. Right as he reached the threshold, however, he suddenly felt an Intent force trying to tear away the control of his Spiritual Sense.
Alex maintained his control and pushed it beyond, but it was clear he had to work really hard for that. It wasn’t something that was so easy, especially considering that the restriction was half-successful in wrenching away a portion of his Spiritual Sense and destroying it.
What he pushed further was a weaker sense of his already weaker sense. At most, he could barely push it until the 5-meter mark before he had to take it back in.
Alex was quite mentally drained at that moment and knew that he needed to take a break from this. So, he returned back on shore and quickly went to his room to meditate on this new revelation and try to see if he could understand why it was all happening.
By now, one thing was clear. There was another Intent acting upon the world around him, desperately trying to destroy all Aura and Qi around it.
It was either trying to do so to keep neutrality in this world or to suppress people from becoming too strong. Although, it was difficult to say what was doing that.
In a way, this was a replacement for Heaven. If there ever was a Heaven in this world—which he assumed there was since all worlds had Heaven—it had long since been gone.
Gone, or corrupted into whatever the current Intent was.
This reminded him of the Godkiller’s Intent back in his own world and how it constantly pushed aside all Qi to the edges of the continent. It did something similar, but more violently.
The thought made Alex quite scared at that moment. What could it have been that could do such a thing? What could rival the Godkiller?
If anything, it would have to be a god itself, right?
‘Was it one of the Primordials’ Intent?’ Alex wondered.
Sadly, Alex only knew the names of the Primordials and some basic knowledge about their species and elements. He was mostly unsure about anything else regarding the Primordials.
However, someone in the God Realm making such a place possible would make sense when he really thought about it.
“Let me get my facts straight. Anything that does not have a direct Intent from me gets destroyed the moment it leaves a radius around me. Anything that does have Intent is still suppressed to a certain level.”
That was the basic understanding Alex had.
“But how much of the suppression is this Intent, and how much of it is the Storm God?” Alex thought. There was no doubt that both had ample influence in suppressing him currently.
In fact, it was clear that the Storm God understood this very suppression and probably made the seal in such a way that it worked in tandem with the Intent of Hell.
‘They really believe this will keep me here,’ Alex thought. At this point, he was beginning to fear that it would.
He had thought the lack of sources of Qi would have been the major problem he would have in this world, but the real trouble came after he had Qi.
With every sort of energy suppressed, how exactly was he supposed to leave this place?
‘Can I fly?’ Alex wondered.
He didn’t understand yet what the shimmering in the sky was, but if he could fly through it, then he would certainly be able to leave.
‘No, it can’t be that easy,’ Alex thought. He had a very deep suspicion that there was a suppression on flight. Otherwise, the gods wouldn’t have believed this world to be inescapable.
‘I’ll need to test that out,’ he thought. ‘I can’t waste more Qi, though. I’ll have to get Wushu to test it out.’
It wouldn’t take very long for that young man to reach the Meridian Tempering realm, and at that point, flight would be more or less possible for him.
In a regular world with Heaven, flight was restricted based on the strength of one’s Qi. Unless someone was an Immortal, they wouldn’t be able to fly past a certain point in the sky.
How different would that be in this world? Would the restrictions be greater or weaker?
Wushu would have to help him find out soon.