Alex turned his head and collided with Antoine's power. The resulting shock wave caused the surrounding space to ripple, as if it might explode at any time.
Antoine, who had been trying his best to get close to Alex, was shocked. He was at the divine level, but he couldn't break through his opponent's defenses, which was really embarrassing.
He raised his hand and punched with the force of a mountain, hitting the spot where the two waves of power met. They retreated under the impact, and another loud boom filled the air.
The ground shook, cracks began to appear on the cement beneath their feet, and large sections of the road shattered into pieces.
Alex withdrew his power, and Antoine also bounced backward. Not only had he not gotten close, but he had even lost ground.
Willard and Zoe were again thrown backward by the powerful collision, crashing into a wall.
As a divine-level warrior, Willard's body strength meant that he was able to break through the reinforced concrete wall, causing it to collapse while leaving him unharmed.
But Zoe was not so lucky. She hit the wall hard, breaking several bones. She dropped to the ground, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. Then she looked at Alex and smiled.
Alex's expression hardened, and he transformed the celestial staff into dozens of daggers, which shot through the air and struck Zoe all over her body.
He sneered, and another dagger pierced through Zoe's arm. The people watching were all terrified, and no one dared to intervene.
"You'll regret killing me!" Zoe managed to say.
Another dagger hit her, and she died with a faint trace of a smile.
Willard looked at Zoe and silently shook his head.
"Forget it," Evan said. "In the end, she knew what she was doing."
When Antoine saw Zoe's corpse, he let out a long sigh. "I told you not to act recklessly. No one can save you this time." Then he looked at Alex and said, "You're in big trouble now."
Alex was confused. So what if he had killed Zoe? What was the problem?
Evan also looked at Alex with pity. "There is more going on here than you realize."
Alex looked at the three people in front of him, and he didn't understand their attitudes. Why was Antoine afraid of this old woman? And why was Evan afraid of her too?
"Young man, do you think I don't know that she wanted to kill you?" Antoine asked. "Or that I don't know that she was arrogant and despotic? Or that I'm not aware of how many enemies she had created over the years?
"She was detestable and hateful, but I always left her alone. Even though she colluded with foreign enemies and set people up, as long as she didn't go too far, I didn't stop her.
"This isn't just about you, or about the Rimmers!"
He hadn't intended to tell Alex the truth, but now it was unavoidable. Four divine-level warriors stood in front of him, and he didn't want any trouble, so he decided to simply tell Alex everything.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"Zoe was originally from the Cray family," Antoine explained. "They are from the immortal world."
"Another powerful family?" Alex asked, shrugging. "I've never heard of them."
Alex didn't see things the same way as others, and his goals were different from those of Evan and Antoine.
"I don't know what you're scared of," he said. "I feel ashamed for you. Whoever this Cray family is, I'll take care of them."
He waved his hand in dismissal. "I don't have the time to stand around chatting with you guys anymore. I'm going to spend time with my parents."
His attitude left Evan and Antoine concerned that he had not understood the magnitude of what he had done.
"She isn't the only member of the Cray Family," Antoine told him. "She also has an elder sister. A few years ago, her sister was one of the guardians who watched over the country. But she never came back, and she also didn't die. So we've been waiting for her to return. In the meantime, we left Zoe alone, for her sister's sake."
"A sister?" Alex asked, frowning.
He remembered the row of spirit tablets he had seen when he had first entered the secret chamber.
He sent out his senses to locate the tablet, and then he raised his hand, and the tablet flew out from the rubble and landed in his open palm.
"Is it this person?" he asked. He looked closer at the tablet and saw the inscription with the name Paula. The writing was glowing, and he assumed this was how they had known she was still alive.
"Yes, that's right," Antoine said. "Paula was once a beautiful woman who was skilled at martial arts. She had surpassed many capable people in her generation, and she was very famous in our circle. Now, though, more than thirty years have passed since she was last seen."
He smiled bitterly. "Thanks to her spirit tablet, we can see that her strength is continuously increasing. She seems to be at Jade Lake, and she isn't moving, so we assume that she is trapped there somehow."
"She might simply have gone into seclusion to hone her abilities," Alex suggested, shrugging.
Antoine was stunned. "You think she's been in seclusion for more than thirty years?"
Although it was common for martial artists to go into seclusion, they were still connected to the secular world, so how could anyone go into seclusion for thirty years?
After all, when they came back out, many of their family and friends would be dead. So, no matter how powerful they became, it wouldn't be worth the cost.
Alex, on the other hand, was different. In his past lives, he had destroyed countless planets, so why would he care about mere human lives?
He did feel a little guilty, but people died naturally of old age and sickness. That would hold true, regardless of his choices, and the only thing he could control was the present.
His only goal was to make up for his past mistakes. As long as he was alive, then he wouldn't allow anything to happen to Earth, and he would ensure his family's safety.
"Yes, she might be in seclusion," he said thoughtfully. "Paula's strength could easily have surpassed yours by now."
He held the tablet in his hand and felt a growing sense of alarm.
Paula might even be stronger than him. If she came back from Jade Lake and discovered that he had killed her sister, then she would be out for revenge.