Chapter 416: Special Advantages.
The disciples from other sects couldn’t double their strength like that. So they struggled to cross into the third section.
More than half of the disciples of other sects had to stop in the second section. The rest of them stopped at the third section.
Only a few disciples from the other sects could make it to the fourth section; most of them were from the Black Bones sect. The people after them were the disciples of the Beast Training sect.
The disciples from the Black Bones sect had the help of their corpses. While these corpses couldn’t double their strength, the corpses could carry them across the mountains.
The corpses didn’t last long because of the heat. They couldn’t use an energy shield, so they were quickly burned up. But before they turned into ashes, the corpses helped their masters to cover some distance.
The disciples of the Beast Training sect also had the help of their beasts. The disciples would cover the beasts with energy shields while the beasts carried them across the mountain.
This division of labor gave them an advantage. The disciples themselves only had to expend their internal energy to maintain the energy shields, while their beasts had to expend their life energy to move.
The disciples of the Sword Way sect and the Purple Flower didn’t have any of these advantages. They had to climb the mountain all on their lonesome.
If they tried to help each other, they would be kicked down the mountain and have to start all over again. Even using pills to replenish one’s energy couldn’t be used.
Only corpses and beasts were considered part of their personal strength, and only those who were at the second mortal coil or below were allowed to be of assistance. And if someone wants to use pills to recover their energy, they will have to go down the mountain to do so or be kicked down.
But things got worse for everyone when they reached the fourth section. This was the case regardless of if they have an advantage or not.
The fourth section of the mountain is also the white section. When the disciples reached this stage, the pressure they were experiencing doubled again, the temperature of the heat became higher, the speed of the wind pushing them down became faster, and finally there was a new addition in the form of a grating sound.
The sound appeared to be created from a wind instrument like a flute. The sound wasn’t pleasant at all. It was high-pitched and grating on the ear.
The sound caused tinnitus and a headache in mild cases. In severe cases, many people were directly knocked out cold.
The sound is actually a mental attack. Its effect on the ears is just a side effect. Its main effect is to attack the mind. This way, the body, internal energy, stamina, and finally mind energy came under attack.
Many people were already tired mentally by the time they reached the fourth stage. So they couldn’t offer any resistance at all and were directly knocked out cold.
Fortunately, the wind was very strong. So anyone who became unconscious would be knocked all the way back to the red section. This way their mind won’t be fractured by the sound.
The red section is where the heat blast began. Anyone who can remain unconscious while being roasted will be in a lot of trouble after being knocked here.
For those who regained consciousness after being knocked down, they can leave the mountain quickly to recover. This is what happened to Jason.
Actually, not many people did better than Jason. According to history, no one has been able to pass the fourth stage. So everyone is bound to fail like Jason.
It didn’t matter if they were knocked out immediately. It also didn’t matter if they still had some mental energy to resist the sound. The fact of the matter was that they now had another thing to spend their mental energy to resist.
The heat wave needed energy shields to resist. Energy shields required internal energy in combination with the power of the mind and mental energy to cast and maintain.
The mental energy expenditure just to maintain an energy shield is insignificant, but it can quickly become significant if someone needs to use the entire power of their mind to resist a mental attack.
So for many people who weren’t knocked out immediately, their energy shield flickered and went off because they were resisting the sounds with their minds. Then they had to go down the mountain on their own and very quickly too or be roasted to death.
This happened to those who had some advantages or not. The corpses of the disciples of the Black Bones sect became unable to move when they heard the sound. This was because their controllers were busy resisting the sounds themselves.
Only special zombies could still move under the influence of the sound. But unless the controller was special too and could resist the mental attacks, they would have to go down the mountain too.
As for disciples of the Beast Training sect, both they and their beasts suffered because of the mental attack. This was an attack that they couldn’t share using division of labor.
The sound was indiscriminate and unavoidable. Once the owner or the beast lost to the sounds, they would become useless and have to go down the mountain.
Even disciples of the Blood Skull sect suffered in the fourth section. The first problem was that their armaments couldn’t resist the sound. The second problem was that their armaments consumed a lot of mental energy to run.
Spells mostly needed an upfront expenditure of mental and internal energy in order to manifest and run. But armaments were always consuming both internal energy and mental energy as they ran.
So the extra consumption of mental energy caused by the mental attacks from the sound pushed them to their limits very quickly. This quickly turned the table of advantages against the disciples of the Blood Skull sect.