Alex stood at the peak of the mountain, overlooking the other side. Finally, he had come to the peak that took nearly three hours to climb, even when he did his best to come as fast as he could.
Part of that was because he had to wait for these other three to follow him to the top.
Alex had planned to come with Wushu alone since he had entered the Meridian Tempering realm the other night. However, upon thinking about it, he realized that he needed someone else for comparison on how high they could fly, so he brought Tara along as well.
Those were the only two he wanted to bring, but Mili somehow found out about them coming here and joined them without listening to a single word from them.
As such, there were now four at the top of the mountain, overlooking the land beyond.
“Wow!” Mili said in a clear tone of surprise. “I had heard there wasn’t any sea on this side, but I never thought it would be like this. There’s so much land here.”
“Is this your first time?” Wushu asked.
“Yeah. Father wouldn’t let me come here at all,” Mili said.
Alex looked beyond at the land with sparse mountains covered in forests. A large, serene river flowed through those mountains, snaking its way to the north. There were some places around the river that had been mowed down, free of any trees or grass.
The other tribes lived there.
The greenery of the place was nothing like what one would think when they first heard the word ‘Hell.’
“Where is the desert? I am sure it was in the west,” Mili said.
“I think it’s around that region, behind that large mountain.” Wushu pointed slightly north beyond a mountain about the same size as the one they were on. “It’s not close at all. It takes a week of continuous walking to get there, taking breaks only to eat and sleep.”
Alex nodded slowly as he watched it all. ‘It is indeed quite beautiful,’ he thought. He would soon have to go there.
“So… why did we come here?” Mili asked.
Alex side-eyed the girl before turning to Tara. “Have you guys tried flying yet?” he asked.
“Flying?” Wushu asked. “How… how would we fly?”
“I tried,” Tara said. “And I succeeded too. Well, I successfully floated in my room. I have yet to be able to fly, however.”
“How?” Wushu asked.
“Qi Manipulation,” Alex explained. “Use your Qi and pick yourself up. Then you can move around as you want as long as you control your Qi.”
“Oh…” He looked down, seemingly about to try soon.
Alex looked toward Tara. “Do it. See how high you can fly before you feel pressured into stopping.”
Tara nodded slowly and closed his eyes. After a brief moment, he lifted off the ground, floating in front of everyone.
“Good,” Alex said. “Now go higher.”
Tara concentrated and did as he was asked. He carried his body with his Qi and slowly began floating higher and higher.
Alex looked at the young man and quickly thought back to how high one would be able to fly back in his world. The limit with the young man’s current cultivation base should place him around three meters or so if he pushed himself.
Tara stopped at around six meters.
“I can’t go any further,” he said with a grunt. “It feels like something heavy is pressing on me.”
“That’s enough. Come down.”
Tara floated back down onto the ground and landed, stumbling a little at the moment before catching himself.
“Good work,” Alex said before turning to Wushu. “What about you?”
“I can try.”
Given how talented Wushu was, it took him no time to learn how to fly. He flew about the same height as Tara, a little higher because of his cultivation base, but not much.
He landed afterward, a little out of breath.
“Good work.”
Mili looked at the two with intense eyes and a small pout on her face since she was still quite weak compared to the two, so it would take her quite some time before she could do the same.
“Why did we come all the way to the top to do this?” Mili asked. “Couldn’t they fly back at home?”
“I had to test something out here first,” Alex said.
“Test what?”
He shook his head. “I can’t explain it.”
Even if he did, she wouldn’t understand.
Restrictions were like blankets on top of the land, and around mountains, they layered on top of each other. They became thicker, acting quickly. At the current height, Alex could both tell if there was a restriction or not and how strong that restriction was all at once.
He had tested the restriction now and was certain that while it was there, it was very weak. With his current level of strength, he could easily fly through the sky and leave.
Of course, that was assuming he had a ship to go out that way. Traveling from this world to another one would take such a long time that Alex would be forever lost in space without a ship.
Even if he did have a ship, the sun would destroy all of its energy, then the ship, and then kill him entirely. It took many years to travel through space. He couldn’t just do so on instinct.
‘I should save my Qi for now,’ Alex thought. ‘Once I have enough, I can go outside of this world.’
The very first thing he would do after leaving was confirm one simple fact.
Was Hell a special location in a spatial pocket of its own? Or was it part of the larger world?
That would require so much more Qi that Alex would have to kill a lot and lot of fish for it.
“It’s about time to leave,” he said slowly, looking toward the rest of the world. He meant it both from the mountain and from the tribe.
It would soon be time to go explore the wider world of Hell.