The Culinary Mountain

The class lasted two hours, as Teacher Long taught the kids more about the Southern Desolate Lands and its powers. The lecture taught Kaelen many things his grandfather never taught them, for example: the different sects, countries, and clans of the Southern Desolate Lands.

Besides the Coiling Dragon Empire in the northwest region of the lands, bordering the bottomless sea on its north coast and the Western Wilderness continent and the Free Immortal Sect on its western coast, there was the Black Crow Empire in the southern border and the Fey Empire in the eastern borders. Those three formed the three great empires of the upper parts of the southern Lands, ruled by the Coiling Dragon Emperor, the Dark Crow Emperor, and the Fey King.

In the middle part of the southern lands, the rulers were the Desolate Sect, the Flame Giant Tribe, the Southern Sword Palace, a branch of the Central Heaven's Heavenly Sword Palace, and the Blade God Sect. Each of them was just as strong, if not stronger, than the Free Immortal Sect, especially the Desolate Sect, which is said to have been the first established sect in the Southern Desolate Lands; It is said to foster many powerful disciples and even more powerful elders. As well as the Flame Giant Tribe, a powerful clan who possesses the Flame giant bloodline, a peak-grade heavenly bloodline.

These factions each take a big piece of land in the center of the Southern Desolate Lands; many other smaller kingdoms and sects surround them, causing it to be the most populated area in the Lands. Further south of the southern Lands, you enter a forbidden area—the Soulless Desert. A place where no one is said to be able to survive for long. The intense heat reaches temperatures difficult for even Intent materialization realm cultivators to survive for an extended period of time; no mortal could possibly live there. Though called soulless, mystical creatures and beings are said to inhabit the unfathomable region. In its deepest parts, there exist a Land of trial, famous for the most powerful disciple of the Southern Desolate to challenge themselves—the Abyssal Void. In the deepest parts of the Soulless Desert, there is a massive spinning sand sinkhole, said to lead to an unknown dimension, where ancient races used to live. Though a land of unparalleled peril, it is said to store untold amounts of mystical treasures, profoundly powerful cultivation methods that surpass even the strongest current sect's main arts.

Having a clearer picture of the Southern landscape, Kaelen left the class reinvigorated and positively looking forward to traveling with his friends and living exciting adventures.

A day later on the Culinary Haven Mountain.

Kaelen, Rai, and Thor were walking on the streets of Culinary Haven. After Su Yao told Kaelen about the spirit food, he really wanted to see what type of food was made by the spirit chefs of the sect.

As they discovered the area, they saw hundreds of disciples their age from the other mountains, as well as older disciples. Though there were many mountains in the Free Immortal Sect, there was only one Culinary Mountain. That made it a highly populated area, where there was a constant stream of people circulating.

The atmosphere was very positive, in part because the Free Immortal Sect was more of a peaceful sect, but also because everyone was happy when they ate and drank. It was the place where disciples came with friends either from the same mountain or the same master, or friends from other mountains or that they knew from outside the sect.

Of course, the trio, all looking astounding, attracted countless gazes, infatuated looks from girls, and jealous or respectful looks from boys. After all, the only one that looked especially pretty was Raizel, for he had a quite feminine face and could be described as beautiful in some cases or a pretty boy, as he had very fair skin and beautiful eyes; he incurred jealous looks from his peers. Thorin, on the other hand, was very tall, a bit taller than Kaelen, especially after breaking through; he gained a few centimeters and stood at 1.83m. He was also a bit more muscular and masculine, though he also had a very handsome face. He incurred respect from the boys.

As for Kaelen, he was a bit in between. Mixing domineering masculinity and femininity, he was incredibly handsome, close to the point of 'pretty' but was saved by his masculine light bronze skin and his tall and athletic build. Plus, the noble yet beastly aura about him incurred mixed feelings from the dudes who could tell he wasn't one to mess with.

The boys walked casually, as Kaelen and Rai would occasionally send flirting glances back at the girls looking at them, infuriating many of the guys around.

"Ts, look at these bastards getting all the attention." Some guy said.

"I know, right? What's the point of being attractive if you're weak." An average-looking guy agreed.

"Pfft You guys, you're just jealous. In fact, not only do they look gorgeous, they also look very strong, probably stronger than you two, at least the two taller ones." A girl beside the two guys said.

Though they ignored most comments, the boys still heard them.

Hearing the girl, black lines seemed to fall off Rai's face as a beaten expression painted his face.

"Looks like I'm the weak one of the group. Just because I don't have larger muscles and I'm not as tall. I'm 1.76m, you know. It's very tall for my age. I just look weak close to you Adonises." He complained.

"Ahah, don't worry about it, Rai. Besides, didn't that girl Xue Qing only have eyes for you? Even when Kai came back looking all cool, she didn't drool like those other girls." Laughing, Thor consoled his friend. As the boys all became closer, they decided to call each other by nicknames.

"Aahahahah." Kaelen only laughed on the side, his bright smile smiting many onlookers.

Culinary Mountain, just like Elder Miao's purple mountain, had specificities that made it stand out from most other mountains.

First and foremost, it was one of the biggest mountains of the entire sect, around 1000km tall and 500km wide. About twice as big as the purple mountain. Second, its trees were of a yellow and rose color, painting the atmosphere a warm color; the fallen leaves dressed the ground beautifully, as pretty girls and handsome guys walked side by side with snacks in their hands; It was also a very romantic place.

Finally, the mountain had a lot more buildings than the others, as different buildings housed different spirit chefs and cooking menus. There were at least a thousand different restaurants and inns on the mountain, all with different appearances and allure representative of what was cooked and the chef who owned the place. Some were colorful and pretty; they offered sweets and candies. Others were simple and exuded a soothing calm look; they offered food and drinks like meditative teas and delicious energy soups. While others had a very fiery outer appearance and intense heat emanated from the buildings; they offered fried and grilled variant beasts and monsters. There were as many styles of buildings as there were styles of cooking, of course, within the total available restaurants.

As they walked in the street of Culinary Haven, seeing a lot of couples and pretty girls, Kaelen thought to himself.

"It would've been nice to invite some girls." He thought about Su Yao and Xue Qing.

"Hmm, that blue-haired girl was also looking at me quite weirdly in class, though she's pretty, that senior brother Xiao Wu seems to like her, so I'll stay away from drama."

Shaking his head, he looked around at the many restaurants.

"To eat in the restaurants and inns, we need to have source stones. Or we can only get food from the cafeteria and buffets atop the mountain. I'd like to try some restaurants though; how can I get source stone here?" He mumbled to himself.

They kept walking up the mountain. They walked for hours as it was a very big mountain, but they appreciated the view.

Soon, they found an open square space on the way up the mountain. There was a kiosk happening, and many disciples surrounded the kiosk, entertained. At the center of the kiosk was a group of disciples, about 15 years of age each, three girls and four guys. They stood next to a weird-looking, 250ft tall pole-like structure; one of them had a large hammer in his hand and was striking at the foot of the pole. He was of average height but was quite muscular and seemed strong. However, his form was poor as he struggled to wield the hammer correctly while swinging down. When his strike landed, a loud noise reverberated as a lever rose from the bottom of the pole. It reached about 90ft high before falling down to the ground.

Looking at the result, the boys' face took a dejected turn as he dropped the hammer next to the structure and walked towards the groups, joining his friend.

Murmurs could be heard as the onlookers began to react to the result.

"Hey, that guy is Ma Kung, one of the strongest disciples at the Xiantian Reconstruction Realm in the entire sect. He is said to have over ninety thousand pounds of strength, while he hasn't reached the extreme layers of Xiantian, thanks to his Mad Profound Bull bloodline, a low-grade heavenly bloodline."

"Well, he can't be that strong; he barely reached the half of the structure." Someone said.

"You fool, every foot requires a thousand pounds of strength, so his must have reached ninety thousand pounds. That's insane because he did that without reaching the extreme Xiantian levels; you must know the average peak Xiantian has but fifty thousand pounds of strength. He has almost twice that. That's crazy!"

"When you put it like that, it's pretty impressive."

"Well, what about the game. It still requires someone to hit the top with just physical strength, doesn't it? If he's that strong but can barely reach half, then who the hell is going to be able to do it."

As the crowds chatted amongst themselves, Kaelen looked at the 250ft tall pole and then the hammer. Thinking for a bit, Maybe we can get some source stones here". he turned towards an onlooker.

"Hey you, do you know what reaching the top wins?" He asked the bystander.

"Hoh, the person that reaches the top gets a prize; we don't know what, but the mysterious middle aged man who set it up will appear when the top is reached. In fact, you don't have to reach the top; from 150ft, every 50ft gives you a prize." The bystander answered. But in his mind, he thought, "look at this guy, thank god my girl is not with me."

"Oh, I see. If someone reaches the top directly, does he win every other prize or just the one at the top?" He asked.

"No. You only get the prize that you attain; it leaves some prizes for other people to challenge themselves as well." The bystander said.

"Alright, thanks, man." Kaelen smiled brightly and gave a light nod of appreciation towards the guy, who just looked back at him with a weird face.

"Fuck is wrong with this dude, is he trying to hit on me or something." The bystander only gave back a weird look before turning away.

Seeing his reaction, Kaelen's smile dropped as his eyebrow raised, surprised. "Why did he look at me like that?" He mumbled, but the ones close to him heard it.

Rai and Thor, who stood by and saw everything, only laughed at him, 'seems like being very handsome has some drawbacks.' They thought.

"Guys, how about we go try? You two should have broken through the next stage and gained some strength again; can you reach the 150th and 200th levels?" Changing the subject, Kaelen asked the boys.

"Yeah actually, we broke through once while you were away and once more yesterday after class, so we reached the 3rd stage of Xiantian. I gained about thirty thousand pounds of strength, so my strength should be around one hundred sixty or seventy thousand." Rai said.

"Mine is around one hundred ninety to two hundred thousand, so I gained about forty-five pounds, twenty thousand for each breakthrough plus twenty from my bloodline. Yeah Kai, we didn't ask you how strong you got?" Thor thought for a bit before he said, and then inquired at Kai.

"Oh, Old Dai said my strength should be upper two hundred to low three hundred thousand." he casually said, shocking the other two.

"Wtf, how did you go from being the weakest to that much stronger than us in a week?" Rai said, exasperated at this monster.

"What do you mean weakest? Who said I was ever the weakest, pretty boy?" With a nonchalant look, Kai simply picked his nose as he side-glanced at the purple-haired boy.

"You really are a monster; no wonder Rai said he hated sparring with you." Laughing, Thor commented.

"Oh, did he… Well, you can both take me on from now. It's not like there's anyone else who can battle me with a similar cultivation; you guys are stuck being my partners. I don't pull punches, you know." Looking at the nose dirt on his finger, Kai blew away as he said.

"Anyways, let's go beat that game. Rai, you go first, then Thor, and then me. I want us to show off a bit."

Kaelen didn't bother speaking softly so everyone heard him. He and the boys casually walked toward the center of the crowd, making their way.

"Huh!? Did you hear that? That charmer boy said he's going for the top spot." A bystander that heard him whispered to his friends.

"Yeah, we did; he also said his friends can get the second and third. He's pretty confident." A girl said.

"Or arrogant." Another said.

"Let's wait and see." The group went silent as they looked at the trio making their way to the center.