645 The 4th Mountain

'The Houndbear Berry,' Alex thought as he looked at the fruit that hung on the 3rd branch from the left of the tree.

All the other fruits in this tree didn't seem mature to him at all. He wondered how that fruit remained up there.

However, it didn't take him long to realize that he could only see and sense the fruit because of his talents. With his eyes, that fruit was nowhere to be seen.

'Was it forgotten here and left to grow as big as it could?' Alex wondered.

The girl that was taking care of the other one noticed the two of them coming and let the man know. The man who was fighting to keep them both safe only had more and more stress on him.

At some point, he was going to make a mistake, and all three of them were going to die. If he tried to fight the newcomer and the beast by himself, that was going to be one of the mistakes.

So, he chose not to make it.

"Run!" he shouted and immediately, the girl who had been prepared, carried the other wounded girl and ran away with the man.

Alex commended them on their lack of hesitation to leave the place.

Since the man and the two women were gone, the armadillo turned towards Zhilan and Alex.

Looking at the bloody body of the beast, Zhilan was exhilarated. This beast's body and cores would sell for a lot. Since it was wounded, it would be easier for her to fight it as well.

Alex, who stood to the side and saw her facial expressions, couldn't help but wonder if this girl by his side even realized that the blood on the beast didn't belong to itself.

Its shell was too strong to be bleeding like that. Before Alex could say anything, she tossed Pearl back to him and dashed towards the beast.

In mere seconds, a fight between the two of them took place.

Alex sighed. He didn't care for this fight. He simply wanted the fruit on top of the tree.

So, leaving behind a duplicate of himself, the hidden Alex freely walked to the tree, got the fruit, and walked back to his place.

Then, he leisurely returned back to his spot, at which moment the duplicate disappeared.

He waited for a few minutes to see the two in front of his fight. Zhilan was one realm lower than the beast, but her spear art made up for the gap.

As such, the two of them were on even standings.

Alex sighed at the fact that it was going to take way longer than he imagined, so he decided to interfere.

An imperceptible Heaven's Impact landed on the armadillo right as it was about to roll up again. Instead of rolling up, it fell to the ground in a simple motion.

When Zhilan's spear strike it its head, the force of the stream behind her strike blasted the armadillo's head open.

The girl looked in shock. She didn't expect to win this easily at all.

"Wow, sister. You are so strong," Alex said from the side.

The girl immediately got rid of her shock and looked behind. "Aren't I?" she asked as she slammed the butt of the staff on the ground.

She quickly dismantled the beast, well… more butchered than dismantled, and gave some of it to Alex once he told her he could use some of those bone marrows and tendons as Alchemy ingredients.

He didn't ask for the beast core, however. That would be practically useless to them.

After they split the fruits 50:50, which Alex thought was her trying to get on his good side now that she knew he was an Alchemist, they walked on.

Very soon, Alex could hear a number of people spar in the distance. 'That must be the training grounds of the 2nd mountain,' he thought. Seeing how the sounds came directly from his left, Alex was sure this was the point where they crossed the 2nd mountain.

Zhilan looked a little to the right as they walked along, worried that if she didn't go to the 3rd mountain now, she wouldn't get the chance again at all.

The weaker people that entered this realm would never even think of gaining anything from here, so they would immediately head to the cultivation rooms to improve their cultivation bases.

As for the stronger people, they would go around and search for the treasures. Only after spending a few days in the 4th and 5th mountains, gathering as many treasures as they could would they return.

Since one could only stay there for a day in total during their visit, it was very much possible for her to find the chance to enter on the 2nd day, even if it were already filled.

If she instead waited for Alex to make her a pill, which she wasn't even sure he could make.

She didn't want to take the chances.

"I'm sorry, little brother, but I really need to cultivate. So you will have to go on alone," she said and turned to dash away.

Before Alex could even say anything, the girl was out of his spiritual range. 'Well that was abrupt,' he thought. But he liked this better anyway.

"Shall we head over to the 4th mountain then?" Alex asked.

"Meow!" Pearl gave a response back affirmatively.

Alex smiled at him and the two of them walked on ahead.

Along the way, Alex met a lot of different people. Now that he was getting close to the center of the realm where everything was, he could see more and more people.

Fortunately, no one was stupid enough to steal from him this early on. Although, a few of them did look at Pearl curiously.

Alex frowned, but he didn't take Pearl back. In fact, he dared those people to come and attack him.

Finally, after another hour of walking, he finally came across a mountain that glowed in many colors. Beasts and plants of every type could be found here.

As if sirens blared in his mind, his ingredients feeling gave him an idea of just how amazing this place must be.

Even as he got closer to the Qi the air got thicker and thicker, making Alex wonder why people didn't just come here to cultivate. Surely the cultivation rooms couldn't be better than this place, right?

Alex saw at least 5 people in his vicinity and got a little scared. There were some here that had spiritual senses. Alex didn't want to give away that knowledge so easily.

So, he pulled back his senses and left normally.

As he felt the pull from the different ingredients, Alex walked towards the mountain with a single thing in mind.

Find a Blood Spirit Ginseng.

Most of the ingredients in this location were True rank ingredients, with some even being Saint rank ingredients.

Alex was surprised that Saint rank ingredients were even available here in the first place, but it didn't take him long to realize why that was.

Alex watched a young girl dash along the mountain and reach a tree with a shining fruit on it.

There was nothing protecting this True rank spirit fruit, so she simply jumped up, grabbed the fruit, and stored it in her storage bag.

With a satisfied expression, she walked away.

Alex looked at her with a stunned expression as she left. He went closer to the tree and sighed.

He reached out his hand and an orange leaf that hung at the top of the tree was plucked from the air and drifted down to Alex's hands.

A Saint Rank ingredient.

Unlike flowers and fruits, leaves, barks, thorns, vines, etc never gave off much energy, so people who passed by could never tell how amazing these ingredients were.

Alex couldn't help but chuckle at that thought. That meant that unless a proficient alchemist with great knowledge of ingredients entered this realm, no one would likely take the less noticeable ingredients from this mountain.

Alex had a chance. So, starting at that moment, he went around the entire mountain searching for the best of the best ingredients that were left behind by the ones that came before him.

Most people who saw him carve out barks or cut vines from a tree gave a weird expression, but some of them couldn't help but show shock at his ability to recognize ingredients.

Alex ignored such gazes and focused on finding the Blood Spirit Ginseng.

Pearl followed beside him as well and from time to time, some beasts would come out to fight Alex, but as soon as they got near, Pearl would fight the beast back.

A few times, Pearl would simply roar, and the beast would run with its tail between its legs.

Alex pat Pearl after every fight, and Pearl wanted to show off his power more and more, so he went around finding stronger and stronger opponents.

Night fell into the land, but that stopped no one from searching for treasures. Even at night, sounds of battle rang from all over the mountain.

Pearl sensed someone and Alex sent out his spiritual sense to see who it was.

It wasn't a who, but a what. A Fox the height of Alex and the length of two Alex slept under a very old tree with not a single leaf on it.

Alex didn't want to bother with the Fox, but Pearl seemed to have sensed his cultivation base and really wanted to fight him.

"Are you sure?" Alex asked, to which Pearl furiously nodded.

"Ok, then let's go."