Alex walked over to a group of 5 different individuals who had passed the selection process as well. 3 of them were girls, and two were men.
Surprisingly, 2 of the girls were from the Frozen Heart sect as well.
'Not bad,' Alex thought to himself and sat down on the snow to look towards the stages. Whisker had to come out to help him with that.
The 5 of them, even the 2 girls, were beyond surprised how a person that wasn't even in the Saint realm could have possibly gone through the selection process and won when literally every single other person in here was stronger than him.
Alex could sense their senses on him, but he ignored them and looked ahead at the stages where the fight was happening.
It was still a few hours away from noon, so they had a lot of time.
As Alex waited, he saw quite a few Saint realm cultivators come to the area either by flying on their own, or in a ship.
By the time it was noon, there were over a hundred different cultivators that didn't even belong to the 5 ancient sects.
From what Alex could see from the distance, they were all very respectful of the Saints that were still staying in the boat.
Alex continued watching the True Emperors fight, and saw quite a few weapons that were made up of the same material as the staff he had seen before. He couldn't help but wonder how good the material was exactly.
He only knew it was good from the information he had bought, but it seemed it was the best material out there.
Their group of 6 was now up to 22 and as more fights took place on the stage, the number of spots left was starting to dwindle more and more.
5 hours later, the selection process had ended. All 34 True realm cultivators that were to enter had been chosen.
Of the 34 different people, 8 of them were from the Frozen Heart sect, 5 were from the Nether Poison sect, 7 from the Blazing Earth sect, 7 from the Blue Spring sect, and 7 from Heaven's Frost sect.
Not being allowed to use poison above True rank, as that would easily kill anyone in the True realms, made it so that the Nether Poison sect didn't perform as well as they should have.
Some of them even complained, but this was a group decision made by the five ancient sects, so there was nothing they could do about it.
"Congratulations," one of the elders in charge of the process spoke. "We have recorded your names, so you may go back to your boats and wait there until tomorrow morning when the mountain is opened by the ancestors."
Everyone nodded and moved back to their sect's boat.
Alex sat somewhere in the corner and started cultivating. However, he kept Whisker outside so he could see what went around him.
Every time a Saint realm flew close, Whisker would sense a slight fluctuation of energy in the air through one of his whiskers and turn towards the direction where the saint was flying from before some of the Saint realms even realized someone was coming.
Hundreds of Saint realm cultivators were present by the time night fell and even more were coming.
All of them flew past the 5 ships, greeting the people there in the process. Then, they went on to stages that were now empty where they sat and waited.
As more and more Saint realm cultivators arrived, the elders of the Frozen Heart sect that were going to enter also came out to socialize.
Alex remained in utter shock when he saw more Saint realm cultivators gather in one place than there were True realm cultivators.
A thousand different Saint realm cultivators from the far reaches of the world were here and this wasn't even everyone. Half of them had yet to come, and more than those who were here weren't. They were back in their own place, protecting their sects, clans, and organization in the absence of these people.
Suddenly, Alex heard gasps and murmurs from all around him. To his surprise, it was coming from the saint realm cultivators.
He spread out his senses to listen to what they were saying, and from what he understood they were talking about some woman that had come here.
She apparently belonged to the Blazing Earth sect, but aside from that, Alex got no other information.
Most Saint realm cultivators were too used to using spiritual sense to speak with each other. If only he could listen to those conversations.
"Congratulations," a voice floated next to him from the side. Alex sent his senses back to see that Elder Xuan had come up to him at some point.
'I didn't even realize,' he thought.
"Thank you, elder," Alex turned toward her to bow.
"You have cultivated your body too right?" the elder asked.
Alex didn't see any reason to lie since she had already seen through it. "Yes, Elder," he said.
"You must have suffered quite a bit for that. I hear most people in the Blazing Earth sect are refusing to body cultivate because of how much pain is involved. I commend you for sticking through with whatever process you went through," the elder said.
Alex raised an eyebrow, but that couldn't be seen behind the mask. "The Blazing Earth sect is a body cultivation sect?" he asked.
"Somewhat," the elder said. "They used to have about 5% of their cultivators go through body cultivation, but it has now slowly gone down to the point that not even 200 people want to body cultivate because of how little impact it has on someone's cultivation life."
"After all, there is nothing you can't get with a Qi cultivation that you can with a body cultivation," she said.
Alex nodded. Body cultivation was good, but it wasn't necessary.
"Anyway, you've surprised me today quite a bit," the elder said. "I wonder what new surprises you will bring tomorrow. I hope you reach quite high," the elder said and left.
"Reach… high?" Alex didn't understand what she meant by those words.
However, it wasn't even a few hours later that Alex got the information.
About 2 hours before the Dao mountain was to be opened up, everyone including the True realm cultivators and the Saint realm cultivators that were new here was informed about the rules inside the mountain.
An old man with a thin build, a bald head, and a long mustache and beard walked back and forth in front of the grouped-up cultivators as he explained what to do once inside the mountain.
"Inside the mountain, you will find many Soul Elucidating Tulips. Those are what make the Dao mountain what it is," he said.
The old man was Huang Xinyi, the sect master of the Blue Spring sect, so everyone listened carefully when he spoke up.
"If anyone of you is found to have destroyed a single one of that flower, even if it is by mistake, you will be forever forbidden from entering and will be made to pay a massive fine."
"If you can't pay the fine, we will make you work in the mine until you can," the sect leader said.
"Those flowers produce a special kind of scent that is trapped in that mountain for 11 whole months. That scent is what makes you drowsy and forces you into a sleep-like state where you are one with the world and start to understand more of what you already understood a lot, and helps you form a dao," the sect leader said.
"Since the scent was trapped there for 11 months it has formed a sort of layer on the mountain that only gets thicker as you go up. The higher you go, the denser you will find the scent which will help you in getting closer to the state where you will learn dao," he said.
"Now, that means that the higher you go, the better chance you have of learning a dao. But that doesn't necessarily mean you should go higher than you can. The scent affects one's soul, so unless your body can handle it, don't go too high up," the old man said.
"Once you reach a certain height and find yourself trying to fall asleep, find yourself an empty spot away from the flowers and start cultivating. That will somewhat counteract the scent and help you fall into the trance where you will learn Dao."
"Any questions?" he asked.
Alex raised his hands, along with many others. The old man picked some people to ask their questions and Alex waited for his.
Through these questions, Alex learned that there weren't many places in the mountain to sit far away from people and that was why only 2000 people were allowed to enter every year.
As the old man chose through the people, one of the people asked the same question that he was intending to ask as well.
"Can we take out our beasts in there?" he asked.
"You can as long as you find a spot where you can cultivate with your beasts," the sect leader said. "You will be responsible for everything they do as well."
"But, beasts usually don't have the same talent as us, so they will only keep you back if you decide to help them too. So, if you ever find your beast getting sleepy early on, I suggest you take them back and go as far as you can," the sect leader said.
That was all Alex needed to hear. So he put his hands down and waited for the mountain to open up.
