Time Passed

Alex fell into a routine. For 10 hours a day, he would train his Body, Sword, and Intent until he could no longer. Then, for the remaining time, he would cultivate, and try to get his Qi back.

Despite being in the Saint Transformation 5th realm now, Alex was in no hurry to try and break through and instead concentrated his entire time on just getting as strong as possible with other methods.

Days passed as he did this, and then months. Soon it was over a year since he began doing this.

And he had barely gotten anywhere.

Everything was improving for sure, but the improvement was a slow incline instead of being big steps forward. Alex had to continue doing this for a long while before he began feeling the difference.

So, Alex continued training, spending years and years in the place simply improving.