Chapter 1996 Heavy Steps
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. Updated chapters at novelhall.com
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?'
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!"