Alex slowly walked up the uneven steps. Now that he was already inside the mountain, the scents from the Soul Elucidating Tulips did nothing to hamper his movement.
Whisker sat inside his robes and Pearl walked next to him in his tiny form. Normally, he would've had him walk in his bigger form, but with so many people that were most likely knowledgeable about the attack on the Western Continent 5000 years ago, he didn't want someone to make the connection that Pearl was affiliated with the White Tigers somehow.
So, he remained in his tiny form.
Alex made sure to take note of both his beasts as he walked up the mountain. Any time either of them showed signs of getting sleepy, he was immediately going to put them back in their beast space.
Fortunately, they didn't do any such things and kept wide eyes as Alex walked up.
At around 200 meters up the mountain, Alex finally sensed a distinct change in the density of the scent. Because the scent flowed upwards, and there were no flowers below the 200-meter mark, the tiny amount of scent they were getting was basically nothing.
This was where the main test started.
Alex continued slowly walking up and felt that he was quite fine. Pearl didn't show any signs of drowsiness either. To his surprise, neither did Whisker.
Alex looked at his surrounding, and a few of the True realm cultivators coming up were already grabbing their heads a little as sleep started to look like a valid option for them.
Alex looked back at Whisker and asked, "are you not feeling like sleeping yet?"
Whisker shook his head. Alex looked at the group and wondered if mental strength had anything to do with any of this.
The ones that were feeling the headache didn't show any signs of spiritual sense after all.
He continued upwards and the few True realm cultivators be unable to go any further above. Around the 300-meter mark, they immediately stopped and started walking around the mountain to find a spot where they could sit down and meditate.
Of the 34 True realm cultivators, about 27 were left now, and they continued upward.
At 400 meters, 4 more stopped and went on to find a spot for themselves. Only around this point did Whisker start feeling dizzy. Even Alex was having trouble seeing a little through Whisker's eyes.
By the time Alex crossed 500 meters, 7 more dropped out of the pathway to go find a place to stay at.
Alex tried looking through Whisker's eyes this time around, but he was struggling a lot. By the time he would walk a hundred meters more, Whisker would surely get knocked out.
Alex couldn't help but wonder what would happen then. In fact, what would happen if Alex took him all the way to the top? Would his soul be hurt so bad that he couldn't do anything anymore? But then Whisker was supposed to be Undying. Even killing him shouldn't work, so a little pain to the soul shouldn't do much to him.
However, when he remembered how the 8th Undying God died because of some damage to his spirit, Alex didn't dare test the theory with Whisker's soul.
"You should go back," Alex told him.
However, the stubborn little mouse declared that he could keep going, even when he clearly couldn't.
So, Ale gently tapped Whisker on the head and said, "You did better than 18 True Emperor cultivators as a Meridian Tempering realm cultivator. You don't need to do anything better than this."
Whisker hesitated a bit but went back in the end.
Alex felt someone missing when he could no longer see. Especially when there were still 1500 meters to go.
"Come on, Pearl. You're my eyes now," Alex said. He couldn't see through Pearl's eyes, but Pearl sure could describe what he was seeing to Alex.
Along the way, by the time he reached 700 meters in height, only 3 more True Realm cultivators were remaining.
Alex ignored them and continued walking. Pearl had no problem with the height too.
Alex smelled the scent as he kept going and felt a slight bit of drowsiness. However, with a simple shake of his head, it would disappear.
As he walked, Pearl started relaying information about what he could see on the sides.
Since Saint cultivators would be cultivating here now that he was approaching the halfway point, Alex had kept his spiritual sense at best 10 meters around him, just so he knew where he was going.
So, when Pearl told him that there were Saint realm cultivators sitting not far away before even reaching the halfway point, he was quite surprised.
By the time Alex himself reached the halfway point, all the True realm cultivators were gone, and according to Pearl, there were Saint realm cultivators above him now.
Alex wondered why there were still Saint realm cultivators on the path now. Given how early they had left, they should have already reached the point where they could no longer go above, or simply kept going until they did.
However, it was only when he crossed the first slow Saint realm cultivator did he realize that they were so slow.
The Saints were forcing themselves to move. As opposed to the True realms who immediately went on to sit down because they felt they could no longer keep going, the Saint cultivators were slowly pushing themselves up the mountain to see how far they could go.
In a way, they were testing their resolve. Also, if they could go even 50 meters higher, the benefits would be surely higher.
Alex continued walking and was informed that there were fewer and fewer saints in front of him now. Either they were stopping to go find a place for themselves, or he was simply passing them too quickly.
"You are fine, right?" Alex asked Pearl.
"Yes," Pearl gave an answer.
Alex smelled the thick scent and was hit with a wave of sleepiness. However, 2 seconds later, it disappeared.
He shook his head and kept walking.
1400 meters, 1500 meters, and even 1600 meters, he easily cleared the distance without any trouble.
He was now at a height where he constantly felt slightly drowsy, but he could handle that easily. Even Pearl could handle it.
There were only 400 meters left, and at this point, every other Saint cultivator had already stopped and found themselves a spot.
Only Alex and Pearl were remaining, so they continued walking. Pearl looked around and told Alex that there wasn't anyone in the surrounding now.
For the next 150 meters of stretch, Alex felt all alone. Everyone who couldn't come up had stayed behind, and everyone who could had most likely gone to the top.
As he thought, numerous spiritual senses landed on him from up front, so he too spread out his spiritual sense to see who it was.
Alex saw around 8 different people at the top of the mountain, sitting inside a small pond.
'There's a pond?' Alex was quite surprised. He could sense a hot spring up there.
"Can you keep going?" A voice spoke in his head.
Alex recognized elder Xuan's voice and nodded. It wasn't like he had any problem. Not even Pearl had any problems. But then, was that really so surprising? He did after all have a Celestial Grade body, and Pearl was the descendant of a legendary beast, whose skills and talent he seemed to have inherited.
He continued walking and finally arrived at the peak of the mountain where the scent was most concentrated, but he could still go.
The 8 people, that seemed to have only just gotten into the hot spring, looked at him with curious eyes.
5 of these people were without surprise the 5 elders that helped open the gates of the mountain.
Aside from that, 2 of the others also looked like they were ancestors from the Blue Spring sect, and the Heaven's Frost sect.
The last person was the very popular and nameless Veiled Fairy, whose face Alex had no way of seeing as the veil blocked all spiritual sense.
"A True realm cultivator? That too a male from the Frozen Heart sect? Lady Xuan, you've prepared quite a surprise for us," the sect leader of the Heaven's Frost sect said.
"Not just him, even his beast was able to get here. How did you come upon such a beast, boy? With such a beast, you have a very good chance of becoming an elite Elder in our sect," Huang Xinyi of the Blue Spring sect asked as well.
The several others didn't speak much, but they did congratulate elder Xuan for having a disciple that made it this far up.
"Well, it's a surprise for me too," elder Xuan said.
She then turned to Alex and said, "I had hoped you would make it far, but this far was never in my imagination. Come, get in the water."
Alex nodded and looked at the water and how deep it was using his spiritual sense.
"The scent from the flowers has been infused with the water," the ancestor of the Blazing Earth sect said. "You will find quite a bit more benefit if you get in the water."
"Thank you, elder," Alex said and stepped into the slightly foggy, and even a little pink, water. The hot spring was about 15 meters wide, so there was plenty of room for just 9 people there. Alex walked to an empty place and sat down with Pearl.
