Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 311 She“s not checking you out...

As she heard his voice, Queen Mother looked behind her in order to see the speaker.

"So it really is Alex..."

There, Queen Mother saw Alex, who approached them with a spring on his step.

There was no trace of agony on his face, and his clothes were all back in their pristine condition.

Behind Alex, Queen Mother saw Alina, who was following Alex.

Unlike Alex who looked somewhat jolly, Alina seemed to be somewhat angry, which was punctuated by her occasional glares at Alex.

Alex seemed to take no notice of this as he continued on walking towards Queen Mother.

"...He recovered from that short amount of time?" Queen Mother thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes. "Is this really possible?"

From what Queen Mother can remember, only a minute has passed by since she and Professor Frances had left Alex.

A minute, which is just an equivalent of 60 seconds.

That was the total time that they had left Alex alone with Alina.

And yet, with that short amount of time, Alex actually managed to recover from his life-death experience?

"Is this some kind of illusion?" Queen Mother thought to herself as she stared at Alex’s body. "He was just dying earlier, and now he looks... so healthy."

With her proficiency on the manipulation of life force and vitality, Queen Mother could confidently say that she is an expert on looking at other people’s life forces.

Earlier, while Alex was going through his life-death experience, Queen Mother could see that his life force was dwindling, down to the point that he could die at any moment.

It was so bad that Queen Mother could not bear to see it.

But that was before.

Because right now, Queen Mother could not see any kind of diminished life force from Alex.

Instead, all that Queen Mother could see from Alex was an extremely potent life force, that was multiple times greater than the life force that Alex had before!

It was as if Alex’s ordeal made him undergo through a rebirth which allowed him to increase his life force!

"Yo Queen Mother, I am happy that you took the initiative to greet our visitors." Alex suddenly said as he stopped walking. "You actually did not need to do this, but I appreciate your enthusiasm."

"But-"

"No buts, Queen Mother." Alex said as he decisively cut off Queen Mother’s words. "I am really happy that you went out of your way to do this for me. Because of that, I have decided to reward you a little."

"What are you-"

Alex cut off Queen Mother’s words again as he raised his hand. "Be quiet, my comrade, I am about to give something good to you." Alex said as he mimed a sweeping motion with his hands.

After he made one full sweep, the surroundings turned bright, as a green book suddenly appeared in front of Alex.

This green book, which was adorned with pictures of geometric shapes, was floating in the air without any assistance.

Even Alex, who was nearest to the book, did not have to hold the book, which seemed to be capable to floating by itself.

At the instant that this book appeared, Queen Mother started to feel some pressure from it.

"!!!"

Just by looking at the book alone, Queen Mother had the feeling that she could be crushed by it!

"Huh?" At the instant that she had this feeling, Queen Mother hurriedly shook her head as she forced herself to get rid of this feeling. "Why am I feeling pressured by that book? I am a gigantic World Tree! There should be nothing that heavy or powerful that can crush me!"

If Queen Mother’s reaction to this book was like this, the reactions of the people around her were the same too, if not, more exaggerated.

"Heavens! What is that thing!" The cultivator who had been arguing with Queen Mother earlier exclaimed as he looked at the book with a fearful gaze. "Why is that book oozing that kind of power?"

"Oh this thing? You can say that this is a treasure... which I am giving to Queen Mother as her reward." Alex replied breezily as he pointed his finger at Queen Mother. "Here, catch it."

"Whizz!" The green book then flew towards Queen Mother, who looked at the book with a slight frown on her face.

"Thud." Even if she had her suspicions, Queen Mother did not reject Alex’s kindness as she caught the book with both of her hands.

"Ugh!" At the moment that she caught the book, Queen Mother suddenly lurched forward, as the weight of the book had set her off-balance.

"What the? How could this book be so heavy?" Queen Mother thought to herself as she grunted inwardly. "It was as if... I am carrying a massive island right now!"

Queen Mother, who had prided herself on having an extremely powerful brute strength, found herself struggling to carry this little book.

Just like what she just said, it felt like to her as if she was carrying a massive island in her hands right now!

"Urgh!"

As she struggled to lift the book, she suddenly heard a voice inside her mind.

"Oh Queen Mother, that right there is the Tome of Divine Strength." Queen Mother heard these words inside her mind, making her realize that Alex was talking mentally to her right now. "Please take care of that book. It will be of great help to you."

"This is the Tome of Divine Strength that you bought earlier? Why the hell are you giving this to me?" Queen Mother mentally replied as she assumed a squatting pose. "Shouldn’t you be using it for yourself?"

"Oh don’t worry about me. I already bought the items that I will use." Alex replied quickly. "Do you really think that all the items that I bought will be for myself? Take a look at Alina right now."

Queen Mother followed what Alex said, as she looked at Alina.

After staring at her for a few seconds, Queen Mother realized that there was actually a small pearl that was floating just right above Alina’s head.

Unlike the book, this pearl seemed to be normal, although Queen Mother could feel that the region around the pearl seemed to be lacking of something.

Queen Mother could not really say what was missing, although she could feel that something was definitely missing.

"See that pearl behind Alina? That is the Pearl of the Everlasting Void." Alex mentally said with excitement on his voice. "The power of this Item is suited with Alina, which is the reason I gave this pearl to her. As for you, I also did the same thing."

"..."

"With your abilities, I am sure that the Tome of Divine Strength will be a great fit to you!" Alex mentally said with a hint of mischievousness on his tone. "I mean, just look at you now! Isn’t your strength being tested by the tome already? This is your chance to improve your power!

"You... you really are the Alex that I knew." Queen Mother mentally said with exasperation in her tone. "Hmph, even if I am pissed at what you are doing to me now, I suppose I must congratulate you for your speedy recovery. Although I am not sure if a minute of recovery from your state earlier can be just called speedy..."

"Hahaha! Thank you for your congratulations!" Alex mentally replied with laugh. "Okay, since you are occupied with your new item, let me deal with the guests. After all, they went here to meet me!"

"...."

Queen Mother did not say anything more after that, as she just focused on lifting the book that she is holding.

"Urgh Alex, why do you have to give this book to me now? Don’t you see that I am squatting in front of 10 people that I do not know? This is embarrassing to me, even if I am just a big tree!"

****************

"As expected, this crazy guy has overturned his misfortune. How intriguing." These were the thoughts inside Professor Frances’ mind right now as she stared at the confident Alex. "Hmph, and he even wears that damned smirk on his face. He really is back..."

The professor only smirked as she knew that her prediction has been correct again. The one thing that she got wrong however was Alex’s recovery time.

"Hmph, what did this guy do to become like this? I... must investigate it later!"

After these thoughts appeared in her mind, Queen Mother moved her eyes away from Alex as she focused her attention on a different person.

This ’different person’ was Queen Mother, who was busy on maintaining her hold on her book.

As she saw the tree woman, the professor’s eyes widened as she looked at Queen Mother, who was stuck on a squatting pose.

Her eyes, which had seen a lot of carnage already, was now staring intently at Queen Mother’s squatting body, especially on her voluptuous lower body.

But even though the professor’s eyes were focused on Queen Mother’s legs and butt, her look was not that of the sexual type.

Instead, her gaze seemed to be similar to that of an excited butcher.

"Damn, look at the way her muscles and skin stretches when she squats... They were all stretching in the most efficient way possible... Holy hell! Seeing something like this just added my appreciation on bio-mechanics and fluid dynamics..." Professor Frances thought to herself as she glanced at Queen Mother with a sideways look.

"Damn! I can watch her body flex all day! Argh, If I can just open Queen Mother up..."

Professor Frances could have continued having these kinds of thoughts, but she was forced to stop thinking of these as she heard Alex speaking to the cultivators.

"You are looking for the Emperor, and here he comes." Alex said in a confident voice that made the professor feel somewhat pissed. "Since you have used your time to come here, I guess that you are here to send a message for me?"

After Alex said these words, he quickly displayed his right wrist to the cultivators, which showed that he, just like Queen Mother, also had no numbers engraved on his right arm.

"He, he really is telling the truth..." Murmurs like this appeared from the cultivators, as they all seemed rattled with what they saw.

"Hmph, you all act superior since earlier, but now that you have seen that your thinking was wrong, you immediately act like you are surprised? Typical hypocrites." Professor Frances thought to herself as she shook her head. "If you 10 did this on my home world, you would all have been my puppets already..."

The professor then laughed darkly in her mind, as she imagined the feeling of opening these cultivators up and making them her puppets. "Ah, what bliss it would be if I was just allowed to make puppets... It’s too bad I am forbidden right now."

The professor’s face then furrowed as she gritted her teeth. "Hmph, I must convince Alex to allow me to create meat puppets! Why is he even scared about it?"

Professor Frances then started to think of the possible ways that she can convince Alex to give her some more leeway.

But before she could get to the juicy part of her plans, she had to stop again as the conversation between Alex and the cultivators continued.

"So, now that you have seen the proof that I am telling the truth, I assume that you are ready to give me what I want." Alex said as he seemed to enjoy the talk that he is having right now. "So, where is the message? I am waiting here..."

"Ah well, okay. Um, here it is, Emperor." The leading cultivator took a few more seconds to calm himself down, and it was only when he was calm that he was able to talk. "Our leaders say that we, the Covenant of the Immortals, will be happy to have talks with you, as long as you prove your claims."

"Well, I proved them already, so what will happen next?" Alex quickly said, making the cultivator slightly grimace.

"...With your proof witnessed and authenticated by us, I declare that you, the one who calls himself Emperor, shall be granted an audience with some leaders of the Covenant." The cultivator said as he gave Alex a small bow. "The leaders will be happy to meet you at the annual Time Festival, which will happen at the Jade Sea Prefecture..."

"Just an audience? How petty of them. And here I thought we would have an understanding." Alex replied as he tilted his head. "Are you sure that your leaders made the right decision here?" "Please understand Emperor. Even if you have this kind of power, we cannot just trust you easily." The cultivator replied as he shook his head. "As such, our leaders will still need to talk to you first. If you... manages to prove that you are a possible ally, then we will accept your alliance offer..."

"So even if I am your possible hope, you still treat me this warily? Well, this somewhat offends me, but I am also impressed with the wariness of your group." Alex said as he let out a chuckle. "It seems like I will have a lot of fun talking with your leaders..."

"...So Emperor, you are interested on talking with our leaders?"

"Didn’t I just say that? Of course I am interested." Alex replied as he straightened his body. "Do I look like I am lying to you?"

"Well no..."

"Good. Now that you are done talking with me, go back to where you came from. The next time that we will meet is when we have become partners already." Alex said, much to the amusement of Professor Frances.

"Partners, really? Heh, as if I will believe that." Professor Frances thought to herself as she shook her head. "Knowing you Alex, I am sure that you will just pull a fast one on this Covenant..."