Turning away from their group, I focus on the others around me.

From those who are left, I don’t see anyone else who is shining as an exceptionally wonderful choice to have follow me.

The key aspect about this particular scan is that it also determines who’s likely to stay with me if I get them to follow me. Which is the main reason that many of the people who are currently interested in me still aren’t shining when I go over them with my scan. There are plenty of people who will stay with you when things are good, but when things get bad, people turn to their own interests.

Even Shi Ji, who admittedly started shining a bit more after our talks, Isn’t on the level of these other people. Push comes to shove; she’d default to acquaintance status.

People can change, which is why her shine went up after our interactions, but it takes work and conscious thought.

With that said, while some of the young masters and ladies who had followed me earlier are here, they seem strangely reticent to approach me.

My guess is that they may view approaching me as stepping on Shi Ji’s toes.

It doesn’t help that she gives a sharp look to anyone who even looks like they might try to approach.

… It might be time for me to start up the stairs.

I considered dissuading or attempting to dissuade people who aren’t likely to make it from going up the stairs. But then I realized that with everyone here, there’s a possibility of those people being able to make it up in different ways than just themselves.

Even a person would only make it up halfway with their own strength, could be helped up the other half by another person. There are enough young masters and ladies, there is a significant number of people could actually make it.

Of course, they definitely wouldn’t do that. Without compensation, at least.

I begin my trek up the stairs, following behind some others that have already started their journey.

My scan shows behind me that this starts with several people heading up behind me. Many of them already know of my physical prowess, so they’re assuming that I’m already going to make it.

That is not the only reason, though.

I also have three large creatures following along on this journey. Ones which, frankly, could carry a sizeable amount of people. That doesn’t even include how many I could carry if I really tried.

In particular, Chen and Ju seem to be looking pretty intently between me and the hero group. Clearly hoping I’ll give them the go ahead to ride them.

This isn’t a luxury ride.

Not like what some of the other young masters and people with tamed creatures or Qi treasures like to do.

Frankly, they’re actually just able to make it up the whole journey up the mountain. From what I can tell, their many years of running around on the streets will come into play on this.

The journey will definitely help them fight through any inner demons and increase their conviction. Those who took the free ride from anyone missed the actual point of this journey. To remind you of the struggles, you must go through to pursue cultivation.

While it isn’t discussed, the elders' officiating challenges take this into consideration.

You won’t be penalized for your actions, but you lose out on its rewards. They’ll put more weight to someone who can fight for what they want or at least work for it in some way, rather than a total freeloader.

Even for those with no spirit root talent, there are favorable places to work as a sect servant. They will attempt to put hard workers in any areas to succeed. That way, they can eventually work to become cultivators, albeit on a far more difficult journey.

While these girls are already enormously hard workers, this will show any of the elders watching that they can be used effectively. Based on the feelings I got from my scan, they shouldn’t be a sect servant.

With this in mind, I share with them we will only use them in an emergency. They begrudgingly accept this.

Mei Lin, on the other hand, is actually ready to make it up the mountain. Her parents spent the money to get her trained to make such a trek.

While she isn’t a body cultivator by any means, they’ve been planning something like this for their children for a while now. The only question was, which of their children would it be.

It’s not only that, though. As merchants, they are constantly walking and transporting goods. More than people think, this takes a lot of strength and willpower. And she’s been in the thick of things since she’s been little. Plus, younger people usually deal with these types of stresses a little better, especially when they are used to long trips.

With this in mind, I’m able to move forward with not that many concerns.

For the first five kilometers, things go pretty steadily.

It’s not that long afterwards, then I hear huffing and puffing from some of the wealthy, but not body cultivated people. They seemed to believe they could become cultivators without actually training for it. From the surface level scan I use, I can see they lived a true life of luxury and not much movement at all.

I’m legitimately surprised they got this far. And while going upstairs. It goes to show that even if you have the money and desire, but not the willpower or practice, things will not go your way.

But I find myself to quickly be proven wrong.

Some of them began popping pills and just tossing them in their mouth. As they continue, they seem to get stronger, not weaker. I Intensify my scan on them to see how many pills they have.

Too damn many.

If they keep doing this, they’ll definitely make it up the mountain. Many of these wealthy people seem to have a weakened version of the pill that still has some side effects when overused.

Feeling curious about my resident merchant, I look over it at Mei Lin with my scan, who also has a large bag of pills!

My scan reveals that each one of these pills is pretty expensive, outside the price range of a normal person to abuse at $500 a pill. Each time you take the pill, its effectiveness goes down, so you have to take more pills to compensate. Funnily enough, just one of those pills for someone who could make it 3/4 of the way, could push them through the rest of the way.

Wow, this world really is stacked against people without money or power. Though, I guess it was the same way in my world. With the more money or power, you have, you can get better access to resources and have to deal with less stressors that could get in the way of your goals.

Just based on this, it’s easy to see that many of the people who took the carriages another easy method really didn’t need to. It’s all about comfort.

I can see jealousy in the eyes of some of the poor people, while others seem at peace with the situation, possibly already knowing and understanding the ways people can bypass challenges.

The vast majority of this group cannot make it up the mountain. Not without help.

This barely considers the full 2000 people that came in this batch. Out of the 2000 people that are taking this challenge, 90% of them are poor. The ones who are vastly physically fit have already gone with Huang Kaida, the body cultivator. Which leaves around 85% of them still out of luck.

It would be very tempting for the group to take these resources by force or coercion from these rich people.

In fact, my scan reveals that one year that did actually happen.

For whatever reason, there were quite a bit fewer wealthy people and an enormously large amount of poor people that had taken the challenge that year. On top of that, these were nobles with a proclivity to violence and abuse towards people they viewed as their lessers. Incensed by ‘the filth’ They saw all around them, they were particularly lethal with their actions.

At that time, the regulations were a little looser with what you could do in the Tests. killing was Greatly discouraged, but not prohibited. what this really meant, was that the nobles could kill anyone they wanted if incensed enough, while the poor people had to cower and hide in fear of the retribution from the people backing them.

That year, with the disparity being that large, poor people fought back and tore those nobles apart. With that said, the nobles took much of the groups apart with their enhanced body cultivation and Qi treasures.

Those nobles eventually got their revenge, as almost every single person from that year was slaughtered by the noble groups, when word got to them. only a few people survived, and that was due to the protection of the sect against those noble groups. This was bad for both the noble groups and the sect, as no one wanted to join the sect the following recruiting period. The sect wasn’t protecting its potential members from the nobles and the nobles didn’t feel safe at the sect.

This caused them to set up the rules that are here now, preventing killings and more specifically preventing nobles from running wild. Even with that, though, there's still the risk and reality that the large numbers of people can force nobles to be unable to make it into this sect, by holding them down or beating them up. Even a human can be taken down by a million ants, especially if they can’t get away.

This is the reason the men of the wealthiest and most powerful members take other ways to get up the mountain via qi treasures.

Ultimately, the sect became a fairer place, that while still slightly biased towards nobles, will now prioritize the sect itself and members above all else.

That leaves me with a very, very troublesome situation. In a clearly unfair situation for people, I do have the ability to help these people.

It is likely to be on purpose, but the resources for a commonly known way to make similar type of concoction to the pill the nobles are using is planted all along this mountain.

The only catch is, it takes quite a bit of skill to generate this in conditions like this. Not impossible, but outside the reach of someone who isn’t specialized in that realm. In the past, when people with that knowledge and skill when up this mountain, they ordered it for themselves and for those they know and trust.

This is a test to see if you have potential and the eye to find them.

There’s enough material here for millions of times more participants.

… Why did I have to find this out?