Alex quickly cultivated the 3 beast cores that were given to him. Since he did it inside of the hole where no sight could reach, no one had any idea what he had done with it at all.
The energy he got from the beast cores was incredibly strong, but not painful at all. It wasn’t as bad as consuming the Sun Wraith’s energy. Through whatever process it was that the Wraiths gained their Sun aura, it hadn’t been complete yet.
If Alex was correct, it would only be complete in the end when the core glowed brightly like the sun itself.
Still, the amount of energy had been unimaginable. He had to continuously cultivate for nearly 2 days before he had used it all up.
By then, Alex finally managed to break through.
He was now in the Immortal Origin 4th realm.
Having broken through to a new realm, Alex had a newfound power. Be it body or blood or spiritual, each aspect of him had been increased ever so slightly because of his cultivation base. Qi cultivation was just that good, after all.
Alex guessed that his Blood Aura should have reached the edge of Immortal Origin 9th realm, going into Immortal Transcendent 1st realm, if not already in it. He knew it was improving well, but because of how hell was, it was a little difficult to make that distinction.
His spiritual energy should be much stronger as well, having trained his Intent for so long, but he had no way of telling just what level it had reached. On one hand, Alex was certain that it had improved a lot. But on the other hand, it was also constantly suppressed by not just this formation, but the seal on him.
He would not find a true measure of his spiritual energy until he got rid of this seal or left this world.
His Sword energy was only as strong as his Intent, and since that was suppressed, he had no way of telling how strong it was either.
Lastly, his body was the only thing not suppressed in any way at all. But, it was also the weakest. Last he had checked, his body was around Immortal Origin 5th realm in strength.
However, after breaking through twice until now, he should have improved at least one realm, so he could comfortably say that he was at least in the Immortal Origin 6th realm with his physical strength.
Alex wanted to improve further with his physical body, but he couldn’t. Without the Mountain Crushing artifact, he couldn’t do anything to improve in hell.
However, he now had the knowledge of this mysterious Elixir that he wanted to try out. If he could find a way to somehow acquire it, his physical body would certainly jump leaps and bounds in strength as well.
After he was done breaking through, Alex still remained in the hole, consolidating his new foundation and cultivating the Yang energy that was down there.
Until something happened outside, he didn’t plan on leaving.
So, for 2 more months, he did nothing but stay there and cultivate. Then, one day, he heard a soft thud on the sand up above and walked out. When he did, he found another bag.
He opened it to find two infected beast cores inside of it. He could see the back of the man that had just left it and walked away.
Alex wanted to ask what was going on in the city. Why were there infected beast cores at all? He guessed this had something to do with the dead chief and son of the Stoneclaws, but he would get no clear answer.
So, all Alex could do was go back and cultivate.
Every month or two, someone came by to drop the infected beast cores into the prison, which Alex cultivated with. The frequency increased about 2 years later, coming faster and faster, allowing Alex to cultivate more and more.
Alex could tell very easily that it would take him decades to break through even with this many stones, but that was dozens of times faster than what he could do with the Yang energy below him.
That continued for another decade before it began slowing down once again. Then, it completely disappeared.
Alex had no idea why that was. He wished someone would tell him. The guards didn’t say anything, so Alex was left all by himself, with his questions.
A few more years passed.
Alex couldn’t even tell if it had been 25 years or 30 years since he was imprisoned here. It was just such a long time.
Then, one day, he heard some footsteps approaching the prison, along with some words from the guards speaking to the others.
“You can’t come here, young lady.”
“This place is dangerous.”
“I want to meet him,” a young voice spoke out, causing Alex to become curious as to what was happening.
He slowly walked out, his upper body bare naked as he was given no new clothes to wear. Even his pants were somewhat tattered, but they did the job.
Beyond the prison was a young girl, maybe 12 years old at best. She stood there with a head full of curly black hair, and a wide grin.
“Young lady, you should get back from there.”
“Stay back!” the girl said. “Or I’ll tell my father you aren’t listening to me.”
“But young lady…”
The guards were stumped. They stayed to the side, but were ready to jump in should something happen.
“Who might you be?” Alex asked the young girl.
The girl smiled. “My name is Goyin. Are you Alex?” she asked.
“I am,” Alex answered curiously. “How do you know my name?”
“My mother told me,” the girl said. “She said if I’m bored, I can come talk to you.”
“Your… mother?” Alex asked, his eyes moving toward the guards and how they treated her. A curious thought came to his mind.
“Wait, are you Xichen’s daughter?”