That cliff was so slippery and could literally not be stepped on. It was impossible to run it up!
Not all scholars had learned the art of flying and if they wanted to jump up the cliff, the difficulty would be extremely high. In addition, these people were also in Spirit Embryo and Five Elements Realms. With their realms not there yet, they were unable to learn divine arts.
Just this wall alone could probably eliminate more than half of the scholars.
However, many scholars who had learned the art of flying started to fly up the mountain cliff and passed this stage with ease. However, they were the minority. There were also many scholars who decided to sprint up the cliff and all of them broke their heads as they sprawled on the cliff without exception.
