Alex looked at Marlon, Horace, and Elsa, who were standing behind Gwen, and he laughed.
"Is it just the three of them?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "They're all at the golden core level, and one of them is only at the early stage. Don't you think they're overestimating their abilities?"
Marlon hadn't expected Alex to be able to tell what level the three of them were with just a glance. They examined Alex in return and were disappointed to discover that they couldn't identify his level at all. But when they thought about the power he had displayed when he destroyed the portal a few months before, they felt fairly confident that they could deal with him.
After all, Alex had only been at the foundation establishment level back then. It had only been a few months, so it seemed unlikely that he would have reached the golden core stage already. And even if he had, if the three of them combined couldn't take him on, then it would be a huge embarrassment.
Marlon looked Alex up and down. "So, you're the Great One?" he asked.
"That's right," he said casually. "I'm the Great One. And you would have been better off trying not to provoke me."
"Who do you think you are?" Marlon asked. "You've come to Earth to flaunt your power, and did you even think to ask for my permission?"
Alex looked at Marlon with contempt, and then he looked at Gwen. "It seems you've experienced my wrath. Didn't you bother warning him about me?" he said.
Gwen didn't dare to speak, and she was shaking with fear.
"Gwen, what did he say to you?" Elsa asked sternly.
Gwen started shaking even more than before. "He didn't say anything himself…but there was a warning… that said …" She trailed off and looked around.
"What did the warning say?" Horace demanded, about to explode with rage. "Speak up!"
"The warning asked me to tell you to not even try to step onto Earth again," Gwen said. "Or else The Great One will fight his way into the immortal world and destroy our sect."
By the time she had finished speaking, sweat dotted her forehead, and she seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
"Destroy our sect?" Marlon cried. "I've seen a lot in my time, but I've never seen such arrogance!"
He took out a long flute. "Oh, supposed Great One," he shouted. "Just know that you're about to be killed by Marlon of the Crimson sect!"
He put the flute to his mouth, and a deep, melodious sound rang out. Then a dragon with a misty glow appeared in the sky. It grew and solidified until it seemed to be real, and then it raised its head and charged directly at Alex.
As the dragon attacked, the sky went dark. Bernie was so scared that he flew away and hid.
"Marlon has summoned the crimson dragon," Elsa said. "The Great One is surely finished!"
Horace and Elsa looked on with interest. In their eyes, Alex was only a low-level warrior, so how could he be compared to the famous warrior Marlon of the Crimson sect?
Alex didn't react at all. He just stared at the dragon.
"He must be terrified," Elsa said, looking at him with pity.
The summoning of the crimson dragon was the divine ability of the Crimson sect. It was an ability that had been developed over hundreds of years. The dragon had caused chaos in the immortal world and had killed countless warriors who had challenged it.
As for Alex, he merely continued to stare at the dragon without moving an inch.
"Do you think you're the only one who has superpowers?" he asked as the dragon approached. When it was less than an inch away from him, a ripple of light flashed from Alex's eyes, and then a vast river, dozens of feet wide, fell from the sky and engulfed the dragon.
When Horace and Elsa saw the magical river, their jaws dropped.
The dragon was only ten feet long, and now it looked like a fish swimming in the river. It didn't even cause a ripple before it was submerged.
When he saw the dragon being swallowed by the water, Marlon was finally impressed and started to look at Alex in a different light. "You have some skills," he said grudgingly.
Although Marlon had only used about five percent of his power, with his strength, an ordinary golden core warrior shouldn't have been able to withstand his attack, but Alex had quietly created a powerful river and defeated the dragon.
"Unfortunately, you've insulted the major sects of the immortal realm," Marlon said. "My realm was once the master of Earth, but because the Earth's spirit energy was depleted, everyone moved away and left the planet for you to thrive on. And now, your Earth, with its debt that can never be repaid, actually wants to destroy my sect? You've offended your superiors, and now you will be punished for it!"
As he finished speaking, eighty percent of the energy in his body burst out, turning into a shocking wave more than a hundred feet long. The crest of the wave was extremely high, and it was ready to crush Alex to death beneath it.
Horace and Elsa, who were standing to one side, could feel the immense power of the vast wave. In the Crimson sect, apart from the master himself, Marlon was the strongest. If the two of them had to face the power of that huge wave, they would do everything they could to get out of its path. Then they would think of a way to fight once the wave had passed.
But Alex didn't seem to care about the wave at all. He stared at Marlon and shouted, "You're from Earth, and yet you want to bully and destroy us. Aren't you ashamed? You're not any better than us just because you went to go and live somewhere else. This is where you came from!"
He lightly tapped the ground with his staff, and an enormous mountain appeared out of thin air. The mountain was extremely tall, reaching up to the sky and stretching down to the ground. It was majestic and vast, and its aura was powerful.
It smashed down from the sky and pulverized Marlon's wave. Earth easily countered water, and Marlon had been defeated.
It wasn't just the wave that had been beaten, but Marlon as well. In the face of the vast mountain, he was so scared that he flew backward. His feet became a blur as he fled several miles away. By the time he looked back, the towering mountain had already disappeared, as if it had never existed.
When they saw what Alex was capable of, Horace and Elsa were so scared that they didn't know what to do. They had never seen anyone with powers quite like Alex's.
"Why aren't the two of you attacking him?" Marlon shouted from his position of safety.
"I'll do it!" Horace said. Then he took a step forward and raised his arms to the sky. As he did so, he grew in size, becoming a towering purple giant.