There was another burden placed upon Alex, one he created himself for Whisker's sake.
Before the tournament began, Alex had created a pill by managing to copy the energy of the Fain Immortal Peach Lily. While he had only copied it, he now needed to improve it. He needed to understand what made the energy unable to be used in succession and then try to improve that.
Once he was done, he could use it to quickly improve Whisker's cultivation base without having him cultivate at all.
Alex was going to have less and less time to cultivate his physique going forward, so this was the best idea he could come up with to help Whisker while taking the least amount of his own time.
Unfortunately, he couldn't complete it by the time the tournament rolled around, so Whisker would have to wait until afterward, as Alex's focus would return to the tournament for a while.
