173] – [Freed Being]

'This is quite problematic.'

Rocking back and forth on the soil of some damp underground cave, Alexander stroked his chin. He was reviewing his plans for the near future. More precisely, the plans about his next breakthroughs. He was confident in managing them in the end, not afraid of some tribulation if there laid some ahead, or even fazed by some ambush. He did not even cultivate the thought of messing up.

The Eleutherian Realm was divided into five stages. Namely as follow; Mind Release

, Birth Supremacy

, Regret Finality

, Origin Encompassing

and Fate Trial of Ascendency

.

The issue came at the third one, Regret Finality

.

The process was not fully explained, left quite vague. The concept, Alexander understood it somewhat. It was even in the name, to free oneself of all regrets.

This instinctively made him think of something.

'Earth…'

'This is the only place I can't seem to forget. No matter how long I live, this memory of a few decades only just keeps popping up.'

Having lived for trillions of years already, Alexander's life on Earth should have been long forgotten. Anything less than a thousand years would start to become foggy. Even his Three Wide Lands seemed distant.

But Earth… it never turned out this way. His memories of this place were as clear as day. Too clear, in fact. He forgot who he killed last, but still remembered the brown haired man's face that was on the news. He did not even comprehend how he could remember such things. When he was on Earth, he would forget what he ate the day prior, but now he could almost remember each meal he consumed.

The farther it became, the closer it ended up.

'There is also the second stage probably related to all of this. The Eleutherian Realm is all about freedom. To free oneself of one's mind, one's past and one's origin. It is to free oneself of one's fate, building one themselves.'

According to his gathered memories, the Cave Masters were only stuck in this realm because of the difficulty of this trial. But the difficulty was rumored to be nothing as expected.

Powerhouses of the Sealed Gate claimed the Cave Masters to have shared some of their trouble on rainy days of sourness.

Some of these monsters told others. The trial was not about brute strength. It was about one's destiny. The trial was not difficult, and could be considered extremely easy. But only so for the destined beings.

'It stops there.'

'If it isn't about strength, and is more about destiny, then…'

'I don't know. I'll figure it out after opening the skull of those Cave Masters and prying inside.'

'For now, let's focus on the closest steps.'

Closing his eyes, cross-legged on the uneven ground, Alexander's body breathed the energies around. His internal world spewed out refined energies, meant for his own use.

He pondered on the next stage.

He did so until he ended up stuck, his black hair gently floating around. His demeanor untouched by the dirt around.

Swiftly waving his arms around, balls of light spawned everywhere. They squirmed before metamorphosing into copies of himself.

'If I can't take risks, might as well take precautions. Just letting clones try and fail continuously until the solution is found, isn't it proper cultivation?'

Grinning at the thought, he hibernated as his clones steadily worked on the future.

In the blink of an eye, Alexander felt some commotion. Opening his eyes who knows when, his clones had turned to pristine skeletons as tremors rang above him.

'They failed? And they died too? This shouldn't be…'

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Using his very existence as a medium, a faint shadow of silver grew behind him. A domain exploded close to him, far enough to see the past as well as the memories he needed.

'…'

Unexpectedly, a problem occurred soon. A very annoying one to his renewed resolve.

'So I can't use clones for this… their existence is divided, unable to perform as necessary. Only the true one shall remain, basically.'

Sigh

'Whatever.' Whistling, he moved a bit, resting his back to the wall, and waited a few hours more before a giant hole was made through gentle explosions turning the fields above into wastelands. The trees were sliced by the shockwave, but he did not care.

Unmoving, he watched amusingly as a group of people landed in front of him. To play around, he decided to cover himself, looking like a corpse to the weaker beings.

"Jackpot! We got an Immortal's abode!"

"Mmh… I think it looks more like a secluded spot. Why cultivate in such a dirty place?"

'I should've made a more imposing place. I stopped doing these palaces after nobody infiltrated my seclusions. A shame…'

Still without making a single movement, he was noticed by a burly bald man of a brown complexion.

"Here! Here!! Guys! I found the cultivator's remains! It's still in perfect conditions!"

'…'

"You're right!" This time, it was a feminine voice. A red haired woman in a black suit, the same as the two others, approached Alexander.

"He cultivated in such a shitty place, but his looks are amazing. His robes look shabby, but his space rings don't! I'm calling dibs on them!"

"Hey! Stop now! I saw him first!" Obviously unhappy with the jokes, the burly man tried to yank Alexander's space rings. Letting him take them, he saw the man's eyes glimmer in greed. Even his breathing quickened.

"Rich… We're fucking rich!!! Yahoo! I'm rich! I'm rich! Screw you all!"

"Hmph!" Harrumphing at the sight, a pale blue haired woman of short hair in the same black suit advanced as well. She reached for his robes, patting inside in search of artifacts or treasures of any kind.

But since Alexander only wore white robes and almost nothing else, she could not find anything interesting. He did not even have a single pocket.

"Tch." Crossing her arms with a pout, she saw the red haired woman turn pale.

"Leader, what's wrong?" Still asking, she did not receive any response. This forced the burly man to notice it as well.

"Hey Kiara, why is the leader sweating so much? She looks unwell."

"Hell if I know…" Approaching her, they patted her hunched back.

"You alright? Why do you-"

°Shhh!! Both of you!°

Quieting, they were startled by her shivering attitude.

°If I'm not wrong… judging by the traces here…°

°Yeah?°

°Yes?°

Gulping audibly, the red haired woman quivered like a blade of grass during the thunderstorm.

°Then the cultivator is not dead yet!°

'…'

'…'

Wanting to deny her claims, they still could not ignore such danger.

°What do you mean? Explain!°

°There are traces here… the Immortal seated against the wall… that cultivator, he might not be dead.°

°I understand, but what makes you say so? Come on! Speak clearly!°

°That's right! Stop teasing us with bullshit just so you can pocket more than us!°

°Listen you guys… can't you damn see the traces on the ground?! The boot prints on the dirt are fresh! Like, really fresh!°

°But he looks dead to me..?°

°Same, honestly.°

A loud thunderclap echoing above, they jumped in fright. Realizing what happened, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew, just the weather. Seriously, I got scared with your stupid paranoid thoughts!"

"Same, same! Can't believe this girl."

"I know right?"

"!!"

Freezing up, they all heard a response to the blue haired girl. But they expected the burly man to say it, not someone else.

All close to one another, they could not really see around them with the naked eye. Their senses did not pick up on anything either. But they heard a man's voice so close to them. Actually, it came just from above.

Slowly raising their heads, in the darkness of the cave, lacking the light of prior due to the weather, they saw a shadowy figure loom over them. So close even. Just a few centimeters from the blue haired girl and burly man.

The figure was way taller than them, towering like a mountain. Like a demon thirsty for blood.

Due to the conditions, they could only faintly see the dusty white robes and some of his jawline. But they could clearly see the bright eyes glaring at them with amusement.

"What's wrong?"

"Seen a ghost?"

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Screaming in fear, the blue haired girl panicked from the sudden fright, immediately running into the red haired girl. But before she could take another step, a hand clutched her skull from above.

The burly man then saw the figure's face change, veins popping with strange visibility. The eyes in the dark turned bright red, a sense of terror overcoming their senses.

Now frozen, not only from fear, but oppression as well, they were left like vegetables on the chopping board.

"Where are you running..?" Said through gritted teeth, forcing such an expression of wrath, Alexander made his words sound demonic on purpose. It was much more fun this way.

Tightening his grasp on the blue haired girl, his left hand did the same and caught the burly man's shoulder blade.

"You people, did you enjoy playing detective in here?"

Only able to see sturdy teeth surrounded by a veiny jaw and neck, beneath a pair of glowing red eyes, they were petrified. It would have been one thing if the appearance was off putting, but the pressure was not to be disregarded either.

Against a sage, these poor souls did not stand a chance.

The hole closing up under Alexander's Void Sense, the last bits of light faded away before their teary eyes.

Left only to the predator behind.

"I will enjoy this one. But don't worry, it will only take a few moments!"

.

.

.

Stepping out of the cave, the bloodied Alexander walked around for some time, before digging another hole next to his previous one. This time however, he would make the interior much nicer. Four exquisitely crafted pillars of dirt supporting the ceiling filled with engravings.

'Painting with imagery is much easier. Engraving too.'

Sitting atop a set of stairs, onto the top of a flat pyramid, his eyes soon shut themselves.

'If I can't make it to the second stage, then I'll try it.' Having figured out a plan, Alexander eyed a certain place in Limbo. More precisely, a certain location where someone died.

Died from a knee to the face.