Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy
chapter-1996

Since the sect was more focused on gaining disciples with a lot of potential than a lot of cultivation base, it wouldn't make sense for the strength of the aura to increase by the same level for everyone else. Surely, it would increase proportionally based on their cultivation base.

Which meant, Alex had a chance to succeed here.

He didn't speed up. He didn't skip steps. He moved one step at a time at his own pace, ignoring the others who may be rushing on ahead or slowing down ever further behind.

Sure, there may be a reward at the end for someone who arrived at the top the fastest, but Alex didn't need to be first.

He just had to get there.

Alex climbed the staircase slowly, feeling the effects of the aura gather around him, making things heavier. Nearly a thousand steps up, the aura felt as though he was walking around with a ton of weight on him. He wondered if the Immortal Spirit realm cultivators felt 10 tons of weight at this very spot. A ton of weight was nothing to Alex. Midnight alone was 16 tons in weight, and he carried it around as though it was nothing. This simple weight could not stop him at all.

Alex continued climbing and the weight slowly increased. Even before he reached 1500 steps, the weight reached 2 tons and increased even further.

Alex worried just how much it was going to continue to increase.

Alex finally looked around to watch his peers and saw many of them walking up the mountain with no problem at all. In fact, many of the ones that had rushed had made it halfway up the mountain already. They had slowed down now, but they were still faster than Alex.

'What the hell?' Alex thought.

At the rate at which the pressure was increasing on him, they should have been facing a lot of pressure around them, giving them imaginary weight of 100s of tons. How were they climbing with absolutely no trouble at all?

'Was I wrong?' Alex wondered. 'Is the pressure increase not proportional?'

This was bad news. If everyone was facing the same weight throughout the entire climb then, the ones with the higher cultivation base had an obvious advantage.

Alex was also stronger than most of the weaker cultivators here, but he couldn't show that right now. He had let the sect think that his Battle Power was only 3. If he did better than them, then they would realize something was up.

'Should I… use that?' Alex wondered. There was something he could do here that would immediately make this whole thing incredibly easy for him. With the power within his body that he didn't understand just yet, Alex could fight against the external aura and make it appear so that the aura didn't affect him at all.

But if he did that, they would realize that he was something special. No, he had to do it by himself. He couldn't rely on his body.

Alex continued climbing while frowning about the situation. When he reached 5000 steps, he looked back and saw the weaker cultivators lagging behind a little, trying to maintain their stamina.

They were beginning to dread the climb ahead, and Alex couldn't blame them. The pressure around this spot was equivalent to carrying 20 tons of weight. While an Immortal Cultivator was capable of doing that, they simply couldn't imagine just how much the weight would increase on the remaining 15000 steps.

Alex continued climbing and each step increased the weight more and more than last time. In 5000 steps, the weight had reached 20 tons. In 6000 steps, it had reached 30 tons.

The progression wasn't steady at all. It was exponential. Alex looked at the Immortal Transcendent and Immortal Spirit realm cultivator around the 12 thousand steps mark and wondered how much weight they were carrying. 200 tons? 500 tons?

What was the weight going to be further ahead?

Alex looked back at the hourglass at the foot of the mountain, wondering how long it had been since he had begun climbing. It stood in a clearing at the bottom of the steps now for everyone to see.

Only 2 hours had passed. There were still more than 21 hours to go. If they could keep the rate, they could arrive at the top of the mountain in just 2 more hours. But, that was simply wishful thinking. The climb up was going to take a lot more than just this and Alex knew it. He feared he was going to fail.

Around the 8000 steps mark, Alex had now fully confirmed that the aura that was creating the imaginary weight on them had no regard for just how strong the person was.

Weak or strong, it made no distinction and everyone had to suffer the same fate. At the current steps, Alex felt an equivalent of over 100 tons.

For Alex, it was still doable. He was physically strong enough to carry at least 1000 tons on his own, and adding his cultivation base, he could add another 1000 tons on top of that. Adding blood aura could maybe give Alex another 500 tons of weight to carry, but that wouldn't be enough.

At the rate the weight was increasing, he would reach his capacity before step 15000. What then? What was Alex going to do at that point?

Was failure just confirmed for him at this point?

'This shouldn't be like this,' Alex thought. He knew he was missing something. If cultivation base were ever going to be a factor, it would've been one long since.

So why was it being one right now? What was he missing exactly?

Alex stopped at the step he was in taking in a few deep breaths as he looked on ahead and then behind him.

Ahead of him, many of the cultivators had slowed down tremendously, taking one step at a time to go forward. Each step increased their weight tremendously and many of the people that had reached far ahead were beginning to be unable to move even further.

Behind him, the situation was similar with the weaker cultivators too. Their cultivation base alone didn't let them get any further. They were too weak to do so.

'Is there some sort of trick here?' Alex wondered. 'How do I pass?'

There was no answer Alex could find here at all. All he could do was his best. So, he turned around and continued walking.

Time passed and his steps slowed. He reached the 10 thousandth step a few hours later, feeling the weight of nearly 500 tons on top of him. If it continued increasing like this, he would be stopped in just a couple thousand more steps.

Alex took in a deep breath, feeling the fatigue in his body. The aura continued pushing on Alex, giving him more and more weight. At some point, he even wondered if he should just give up on doing it by himself and rely on his body's power to ignore the aura.

However, before the thought within his mind even turned true, something else distracted him. A woman screamed from the front.

"I give up!"