Alex slowly walked through the forest with Pearl by his side. With Pearl's insistence, he went around searching for a worthy enemy for Pearl and watched as Pearl annihilated his enemy.
"Yeah, you need someone stronger than that. Or at least someone with better skill and intelligence to use them," Alex said to Pearl who was busy chewing on his victory prize.
"Meow!" Pearl sent information to Alex's mind that shocked him a little. "You can break through again? When was the last time you did it?" he asked.
"A month ago," Pearl replied.
"Hmm… that is a little fast. I'm not su— oh wait, the 3rd mountain's training room each last for a month. If we can get a place there, you can break through towards the end of it," Alex said.
Pearl nodded happily.
'Geez, only 3 years old, and already close to True Lord 6th realm. He might end up being unstoppable in the future soon,' Alex thought. Then, they continued walking at their leisurely pace.
The 4th mountain had been stripped empty, and the 5th mountain was stolen from already.
Since the 2nd mountain was a training mountain that most cultivators didn't care about, almost all of them were present in the 3rd mountain and it was filled to the brim.
Alex arrived here as the sun rose from the east, and he couldn't help but be surprised at just how many people there were in this place.
And they were all gathered by the foot of the mountain too. A few people did go up, but from what Alex could see, there wasn't anything up there.
At least, the diary didn't mention it. It did mention the cultivation mountain and how the owner of the diary went there once a week to cultivate in the mountain.
Alex was sure after reading that line that the cultivation rooms were likely carved into the mountain itself.
From what he could see now, that was correct.
"Are the rooms all occupied?" he wondered when he saw the many people just sitting around, not even looking towards the opening.
Alex himself only then looked towards the opening and saw a group of people sitting by the opening.
2 young men wore a white robe that seemed to be burnt at the edges. A young girl and a young man wore blue robes that looked like they had waves crashing in on them. Another young woman wore a robe that seemed to be fully doused in blood.
A young man wore gold and brown robes of the Glory's Edge sect. 2 women wore the black and red robe of the Heaven's Peak school. A man and a woman wore the green and pink rose of the Falling Lotus sect.
There were other people there too, and Alex recognized them all as members of the great clans and sects. Not a single one of these were the members of the elite group that was gathered at the mountain plateau yesterday.
"Fellow Daoist, are we not allowed to enter the mountain?" he asked.
The woman he asked the question turned her head towards him and answered, "You can, but you will have to pay a price at the gate and wait for your turn."
"Price?" Alex asked with a confused look.
"Yes," she said. "It's about 20 True Spirit stones. Not many are willing to pay at all since that's not a small price for most of us."
"You should sit here like us. They can't protect that place forever anyway," the woman said.
Alex couldn't help but see the disciples of the great clan in a more negative light.
Still, he wanted to try the cultivation room out, and 20 spirit stones were nothing for him. So, he walked to the front where a woman in a green robe was standing.
"I want a spot in there," Alex said. "When is the latest I can get?"
The girl looked at him carefully for a bit and looked into her talisman. "There will be a spot empty around tomorrow noon," she said.
Alex frowned a bit. 'A day and a half? I will have to wait that long?' he thought.
He shook his head and said, "Fine. I want it."
The woman's lips turned to a grin. "Great! Give me 20 True Spirit stones."
Alex took out some spirit stones and handed them to her. The girl took it and handed him a small piece of paper with "Stamp of the 7 colors" written at the top. Next to it was the number 155.
"Be sure to be here tomorrow when I call your number," she said.
Alex nodded and walked back. As he left, he heard someone walking out of the opening and looked back. Alex didn't recognize the person, but it was someone from the Shen clan.
The girl then called out the number 102.
'102?' Alex thought. 'That means there should be around 40 to 50 functioning rooms in there, right?' he thought.
When Alex saw the person who was walking in, he couldn't help but show a hint of surprise on his face.
It was the beast tamer from the first night in the secret realm.
"So he really did come back," Alex thought. His face turned into a smirk when he saw the anger flaring in the other guy's face when he saw him too.
'Good! I can properly kill you this time around,' Alex thought.
Once the man went into the mountain, Alex turned around, not giving him any thought anymore.
'Well, let's go check the 2nd mountain. I'm curious how it looks,' he thought.
As he walked away from the mountain, he found a few people following him. 'Surely they're not following me because I paid 20 spirit stones right?' he thought.
He slowed down his pace and let them catch up. When they did, as he had expected, they tried to rob him.
It took them exactly 3 seconds before they were on the ground with the newfound understanding that they had chosen the wrong target.
Alex left the few people grunting on the ground and continued thinking how stupid they were.
In the next 4 hours, he met 2 other groups of stupid people.
Alex looked at these people that were on the ground with wounds all over their bodies and thought, 'Are the rogues really that desperate that they are already stealing on the 4th day?'
He wondered if it had anything to do with not finding the chance to enter cultivation in the 3rd mountain.
Finally, after a few hours, he reached the 2nd mountain as he heard the shouting of many people who seemed to be training out in the open.
Towards the foot of the mountain, there was an open area where the trees seemed to have been cut recently.
There were a lot of different stones propped up all around the area, and while some were cracked and broken, most of them were still functioning.
From what Alex saw, almost all of them were occupied at the moment.
'Just how many people are in the realm at the moment?' he wondered. He walked over to one of the open spots and took out his sword to see how strong he was.
At the same time, Pearl propped up his head and meowed. He wanted to test too.