Chapter 151 – Life 66, Age 36, Martial King 1
I sat on the ground in my cultivation cave. Emperor Li stood above me.
My first instinct was to pull out a poison pill and swallow it as quickly as possible. I was uncertain how he felt about me in this life, but his anger at the end of the last one had been palpable. If his feelings remained the same, there was little I could do in the face of his overwhelming power other than attempt to die.
However, something stopped me. I didn't consider Emperor Li my enemy. I still remembered him as a kindly old man. He might be mad at me for impersonating his disciple, but I didn't think he was a terrible person.
Working behind the scenes, he had involved himself in my life on several occasions over the past few years. In all that time, he never did anything to hurt me. He only pushed me to further improve my alchemy ability through the missions I was given from the sect.
The main reason I was afraid of him was the angry and belligerent manner in which he confronted me at the end of my last life. But then, after my death was certain, he appeared more sorrowful than anything else.
Yes, I was in a dangerous situation. However, my experience last time showed me that I had a way to escape from him as long as he wasn't prepared for it. I could take this opportunity to hear him out.
Emperor Li looked at me with an impassive expression. My ability to read people had been slowly increasing over the years, and I was starting to have a good understanding of people's moods, but Li appeared to be carved from emotionless stone as he spoke.
"Show them to me."
It took me a moment to understand what he wanted, and when I did, I didn't want to give it to him. It had caused me countless problems, but it had also opened a few doors that might have otherwise remained forever closed. Without it, making that deal with the Ning Clan would have been far more difficult.
However, I had come to learn the problems that relying on the thing could cause. If I never saw it again, it wouldn't be too much of a loss.
I reached into my storage space and pulled out the token that he had given me back in the Eight Flower Kingdom. As I held it in my hand, it vanished and appeared in Li's. When it did, I felt the faintest twitch from my space affinity.
Li spent over five minutes silently scrutinizing the coin. When he finally spoke, it was in that same stony tone.
"Interesting." He looked at me. "Is that all?"
"There… There was also a flame and a book. I… lost the flame and the book was… destroyed."
"I see. Your blessing must be quite… interesting. With hardly any practice, you have learned Rank 4 alchemy to such a degree that three-hundred-year-old monsters would be jealous of you. You were also provided with such… rare items. And of course, we can't forget about your ability to learn formations at a speed that would rival those blessed with such a talent.
As he studied me, I couldn't see even a trace of approval or disapproval in his expression.
"He must have invested quite a bit in you. Giving you so many advantages couldn't have been cheap or easy. What I can't understand is why he placed someone like you here. It doesn't—"
Li had been half speaking to himself when his words were abruptly cut off. For the first time, I saw a trace of real, deep-seated emotion cross his face. It was annoyance bordering on rage.
He grunted faintly but loud enough for me to hear. "It doesn't matter. I just have to figure out how to handle the mess that's been placed before me."
He threw his token at me, and it impacted my chest hard enough to leave an indent.
"As you bear my mark, I am oathbound to treat you as my disciple. Even if it was not my choice…" He grunted once more. "As such, I—"
He paused and his face took on a look of deep deliberation. Again, that same look of annoyance appeared in his demeanor.
"As such, there are only two things I will teach you."
He took a thick tome out of a storage bag and threw it at me.
"That will guide you on Rank 5 alchemy. It contains all of the insights I have gathered over the years, as you should already be aware."
I stared at the new volume, and as I did, I had the urge to make an awkward request.
"Can I have a copy of the one for Rank 4 alchemy? It was destroyed and…"
Suddenly, another book came flying at me. When I looked at Emperor Li, I expected to see a look of disgust, but he had reverted back to that same stony demeanor.
"The other thing I must give you is an important piece of advice. You can choose to follow it or not."
He exhaled in a futile attempt to expel his pent-up emotions.
"Be careful, be damn careful of information blessings. Never trust them. If your blessing gives you information, it will always be true, but it won't always be the truth you think it is. Healways seems to have some way to twist the information to his own design. If your blessing tells you that you should give someone a pill, there is no question. You should do it without question. Your blessing cannot lie to you about that. However, do not trust any implications you draw from being told to do so. If you do, you will find yourself as little more than his puppet."
"What—"
"No, that is all I will tell you for now. As I said, you should always trust what your blessing tells you."
Not waiting for my response, Li turned and headed to the door. He didn't open it. He just kept walking. A crack to the outside world appeared, and he stepped through. A moment later, it vanished, and I was left alone in my cave.
Emperor Li had simply popped in, thrown me a few books, and left. All I could be certain of was that his blessing, and the Earthly Dao, had played some part in this meeting.
My debt to the old man was only growing. He had never asked me for anything. He had only ever freely given me powerful items and knowledge, and he had never said I owed him anything, but I still knew. My debt to him was becoming immense. I could only pray that I would be able to repay it when it came due.
My meeting with Emperor Li left me with a lot to think about over the coming years, but it didn't change what I needed to do in the present.
There was no way I was going to reach Earth City in this life. To do so would mean completing the Test of Body as a Martial King, and my combat training was limited to the Master realm. That meant I would not have any further access to King-level karmic energy, and I certainly wouldn't be able to get my hands on Emperor-level energy. Instead, I would have to be satisfied with simply pushing to the peak of the King realm.
I wanted to dedicate time to learning Rank 5 alchemy, but I wasn't willing to do so in this life. It had already lasted fifteen years, five more than my desired ten. Learning Rank 5 alchemy would take decades, and that was assuming my comprehension level was even high enough to do so.
Opening the book Li had given me, I searched near the beginning for the simplest pill that could help me cultivate. The best I found was a simplified version of the Rank 5 Qi Replenishing Pill. It wouldn't do too much, but it was more than a Rank 4 Gathering Pill would do, and since I only needed a single earth-attributed herb to concoct it, the recipe was simple enough for me to try and make.
Concocting Rank 5 pills was not too different from what I had to do in Rank 4. The only thing that set the two Ranks apart was the addition of the expanded capabilities that being a Martial King granted.
As the book explained, beyond simply locking down an area of space, Kings were able to shift it slightly. In general, this didn't have too many applications in something like combat because of the limited strength that even a high-level King would be able to exert in such a manner. However, when working on something the size of an alchemical pill, this shifting of will-locks became a crucial tool.
Like with Rank 4 alchemy, the use of will-locks was simply a way to compensate for lacking affinities. If one's affinities were high enough, they would be able to easily shift large areas of medicinal energy without resorting to such tricks, but that would require something beyond even peak 5-star.
As a Martial King 1, manipulating herbs in such a way was extremely difficult. My space affinity provided me with a small boost, but it was limited. This reaffirmed my desire to enhance this affinity further, but that would have to wait until I was in a position where I no longer had to worry about any problems that might be caused by the spatial seed in my soul.
Several attempts at making the simplified Rank 5 pill led to me burning through nearly all the contribution points I had saved up over the years. Even though the required ingredient was cheap for a Rank 5 herb, the cost was still at the level of a Rank 5 item.
Upon successfully concocting the pill for the first time, I immediately went out and sold it to buy more herbs. Using the profits from the sale of the first few I made, I was able to amass a small handful of pills. These pills were not Perfect, but they were good enough for someone nearing their limits and unable to get anything better.
Once I accumulated enough points, I rented a Rank 5 cultivation cave on the Earth Peak and secluded myself. With the help of formation and pills, I was able to break through to Martial King 2.
During this time, I was afraid that Emperor Li or the Master of the Earth Peak would show up and demand that I stop cultivating. As I had learned, breaking through without using karmic energy caused serious permanent damage to one's foundation. If they truly saw me as an important disciple, they might not be willing to let me do so.
This would've been fine if they were also willing to provide me with the karmic energy I needed to break through correctly. But since I was certain they wouldn't be willing to do so, I didn't want anyone stopping me.
For whatever reason, no one appeared to question my activities, and my breakthrough to King 2 started a snowball effect where my improved cultivation level facilitated my production of better pills at a faster rate.
As years passed and my cultivation grew, I got to the point where I wanted to start taking a few breaks and have a little fun. This 'fun' was, of course, experimenting with Rank 5 alchemy.
With my increasing power as a Martial King, I was able to control the medicinal energy that existed within Rank 5 herbs much more easily. I used this expanded ability to begin working through the study course that Li had laid out in his book on Rank 5 alchemy. It was exactly like what he had done with Rank 4 alchemy, starting with the simplest pills and slowly adding complications once each pill was fully understood.
I didn't make it too far into his list over this brief period of time, but even with my 'formal' education limited, I wanted to push to make a far more difficult pill.
Basic Replenishment Pills had an effect on cultivation, but they paled in comparison to proper Qi Gathering Pills. After searching through the book carefully, I found a recipe for a simplified three-ingredient version of the Qi Gathering Pill.
Creating this pill for the first time cost me more time and contribution points than I had believed possible, but when I was finally successful, I felt that it had all been worth it. Even this simplified pill was an order of magnitude more effective than the basic Replenishment Pill. As a result, using this more expensive, more powerful pill led to an overall reduction in the monetary cost of advancing my cultivation. As a bonus, it also had a higher profit margin when sold.
Even with the assistance of these improved pills and the high-level formations available in cultivation caves on the Earth Peak, I still needed over a decade to reach Peak King.
When I did, I was satisfied.
There were a few loose ends that I wanted to tie up before my reset, but with my cultivation level at the limit of its potential for this life, I was nearly ready to move on.
Chapter 152 – Life 66, Age 47, Martial King Peak
As I was reviewing what I needed to get done before the end of my life, I realized something. Tie Yang must be furious with me. I had ruined the mission he spent so much time and effort on.
When I became a Martial Lord, I had been demoted to the outer sect because my skills with formations were lacking. Tie Yang had diligently trained me so that I could rejoin the inner sect, but I got so lost in everything else that I forgot to do so.
With my ascension to not only King but Peak King, I wouldn't be surprised if my lack of relevant skills had resulted in my demotion to servant disciple. No one had come to inform me of such a change, but they didn't tell me about my demotion to the outer sect until I was about to enter Profound City. If such a demotion wouldn't occur until I entered Earth City, then it was nothing I needed to worry about, but I felt sorry for ruining Tie Yang's mission.
I might not be able to do very well in a King-level Exam, but taking it was still an opportunity to try to gain more insights into what the sect was looking for. This time, I could try to record information in my journal so that even if I didn't remember anything, I still had a record of it.
However, as I was preparing to head to the Exam site, my plan was shattered by a harsh reality.
"System, how much to create a mental reversion point for the moment right before I enter the sect's Exam Trial?"
Cost 10 billion credits.
I still didn't know if such a purchase was necessary, but I didn't want to take any chances with something that I knew affected my mind, so I had to give up on attempting the Exam again in this life.
This didn't bother me overly much. The value of any information I could gain from the Exam was dubious at best. I already had a general idea of what the sect was looking for, and knowing exactly how they tested for it could only be marginally helpful.
Putting this mystery to the side, I turned my attention to other preparations I needed to make.
For quite some time, I had been wanting to learn more about spatial bags. It had been one of my primary considerations when choosing to join the Earth Peak, and I needed to take advantage of my situation to finally learn something.
Back in the Academy, Instructor Yuan had promised to provide me with a tutor capable of teaching me about them. However, that never materialized.
After entering the sect, I had wanted to study this topic, but the timing was never right. It seemed like I always had something else to do.
Here at the end, I had a plethora of contribution points and a higher cultivation level than ever before. If I was going to learn about spatial bags, there was no better time to do so.
After considering all of my options, I paid a hefty price for a private lesson from an inner sect Formation King. This might have been overkill for what I needed, but I wanted the most reliable source of information I could get.
Repeating what I had been told previously, she informed me that spatial bags were relatively straightforward to make. The only real difficulties came in properly designing the formation stones that maintained them. I noted down the information about the formation designs for later study, but they weren't too important to me, so I shifted the focus of the lesson.
"What could cause items to lose their energy when placed inside a spatial bag? For example, a spirit stone losing all its power and crumbling to dust."
She snorted in amusement. "Yeah, that can happen. The problem is with your formation stone. You created a barrier to keep the space stable and make sure everything stays inside, right? Well, you have to make it so qi and other types of energy can pass through. If you don't, you end up with a massive space devoid of energy. This energy vacuum will rip the power out of anything you put inside to reach an equilibrium."
She handed me a bag and pointed out these features. "See, this creates an opening in the barrier to let the inside of the bag maintain the same qi density as the outside environment. Spirit stones are like rocks of solidified energy, right? Well, you see, their physical shell is able to contain their energy under normal environmental pressure, but if you put it in an energy vacuum, the shell breaks apart and releases the energy. For something with a weaker shell, like a pill, this happens naturally even under normal conditions, which is why they need to be sealed in jade bottles."
This was going to be a problem. I could try to have the System make the storage space energy-permeable, but I wanted to keep its insides hidden from the Earthly Dao. I didn't know if it was possible to do both.
Looking at things another way, if I kept the space as it was and found a way to pump the insides full of energy, I could make an environment that was extremely energy-dense. This 'feature' didn't have to be a negative.
I moved on to another question.
"What about growing the space? We just need to pump energy into the spatial flame, and it grows, but if I want to make an extremely large space, is there any trick to grow it faster?"
She raised an eyebrow at this. "How large a bag do you want to make? As a King positioned inside a Rank 5 Qi Gathering Formation, you should be able to grow one to an immense size with just a day or two's work. Do you really need a trick for this?"
"I…" What should I say? "I'm just interested in what would be possible."
She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Are you thinking about creating a new Trial? I don't know everything involved, but I do know that a Kingcan't make such a thing. To answer the question, you just have to set up a modified Qi Gathering Formation that sends its energy directly into the spirit fire. It's tricky to get everything working right, but that's what you got to do. However, you should know that this isn't the difficulty when creating a Trial. The formation stones involved are insane, and I have no idea how to even begin creating those gateway arches."
That… that gave me a terrible idea for the future. I wouldn't and couldn't do anything about it for the time being… but in the future…
She touched on a few more subtleties about actual spatial bags. I noted it all down but didn't pay too much attention. I had the information I needed.
After my lesson, I performed what was starting to become an end-of-life ritual. I secluded myself for a month and pumped all the energy I gathered into my spatial fire seed to expand my storage space. Using the Rank 5 pills and a suitable formation, the space grew at an incredible rate, and when I was done, it had a radius of nearly two meters and a volume of slightly over 30 cubic meters.
I tried to figure out an easy way to increase the energy density inside the space, but I didn't have much luck. One idea I had was to place a jade box inside a Qi Gathering Formation where there would be dense environmental energy. Then, I could seal it, transfer the box into my storage space, and open it, letting out the trapped energy.
This seemed like it should have worked, but the results were underwhelming. The amount of energy that was successfully transferred in each move was minuscule. I had a few ideas for why that might be, but I didn't want to spend time on the problem at the moment. I had other things to do, and this was a low priority.
However, there was another idea I could try that was rather low effort. It may just be a way to set fire to my contribution points, but it also might lead to interesting results.
I converted a large fraction of my accumulated wealth into spirit stones and proceeded to crush them inside my storage space. This released all of the energy they contained into the surrounding environment. The process made me feel like I was using a platinum-plated teaspoon to fill a bucket with liquid gold, but I could sense the ambient energy density increase by a significant amount.
I would have to experiment more to see if this change had any meaningful impact on my ability to store things in the space openly, but that could be done later. For the moment, I would just keep storing everything in jade boxes. That being the case, I stopped worrying about filling the space with energy and turned to filling it with materials.
With a significant amount of extra room for storage, I completely restocked my gold, spirit stones, and Rank 1 to 4 pills. While my space wasn't infinite, I had more than enough room to store enough wealth to fund a kingdom, and I had every type of pill I could foresee needing, from cultivation pills to poison pills.
I kept a few Rank 5 pills for possible personal use, but since they were low-quality, I didn't care too much about them. I could potentially sell them for a bit of profit, but doing so would be problematic until I was a Martial King. If I sold them any earlier than that, it would signal that they had been given to me by my benefactor, and that would cause uncomfortable questions about why he would give me junk pills.
After that, I stowed away several odds and ends, especially those useful in formations.
I considered contracting someone to make me a Rank 5 Qi Gathering Formation plate, but I learned such things weren't practical. Rank 5 formations were only usable in areas of high qi concentration such as the Earth Peak. In other places, they wouldn't be any better than a Rank 4 one. In the near term, it wouldn't be of any use, and in the long term, I would be able to make my own.
My next stop was the sect's Scripture Pavilion. I used nearly every contribution point I had left to purchase a variety of Rank 4 and 5 cultivation techniques. I also threw in a few formation, alchemy, and martial techniques that seemed valuable.
The final cost of everything was, quite frankly, absurd, and the deacon in charge of the pavilion gave me the stink eye as he processed my purchases.
"You know these will vanish in a month and you aren't allowed to give them to anyone else, right?"
I nodded and motioned for him to continue. The sect had the same rules as the Academy when it came to sharing knowledge. Unfortunately for them, these rules weren't designed with someone like me in mind.
With dozens of manuals to read through, I needed a little help to make sure I didn't make any mistakes transcribing it.
"System, improve my mental library and perfect reading abilities to Rank 5."
Purchase confirmed. Cost 99 million credits. 560,699,004 credits remaining.
I wanted to improve my touch reading to make things faster, but looking at my credit count, I knew that wouldn't be happening. I had to save the rest for later. Instead, I spent several days reading through each of the manuals. I didn't have to be too careful because the 'perfect reading' ability ensured pristine copies were always sent to my mental library, but it still took time.
With that task complete, everything I needed to take care of in the sect was finished, so I left for South Gate City to handle my final two errands.
As I was not on a sect mission or taking the Exam, I couldn't use the sect's portals, so traveling to South Gate City was a bit of a chore.
While I had short-distance movement techniques, I didn't have any that would allow me to cover large distances quickly. As a Martial King, I could directly empower myself with qi to run faster and longer than an average person, but my physical shell was still only mortal. I would be able to make the trip quicker, but my speed would still be quite limited.
This small problem was solved by a stable on the outskirts of Mortal City. Using the small amount of contribution points I had kept in reserve, I rented a beast tamer-raised Rank 4 Wind Horse. It wasn't a portal, but it wasn't too much worse.
When I arrived at South Gate, I stabled the horse and went to the Blue Wind Pavilion where I was greeted by a cheerful attendant.
"How may I help you today, sir?"
"Yes, I had arranged to have several letters delivered here. A fair bit of time has passed since then, but I'm hoping that they are still available."
"Of course, sir. We are very familiar with the habits of cultivators entering seclusion. There will be an extra storage fee attached, but rest assured, they have not been discarded."
After taking my name, the attendant retrieved several dozen letters that had been sent to me over the years. There were letters from LiTing and YuLong up to the point of their deaths, and there were a few from JiaQi from up to a year or two after the time I had met with Yan.
There was nothing from Zhuge Yan himself. Not from before our meeting nor after.
I placed all of the letters into my storage bag without opening any of them. I didn't know how I wanted to deal with them yet, and I felt it might be better to leave them in their pristine, unopened state since simply touching them copied their contents to my mental library.
Letters in hand, I rented a room at an inn on the outskirts of the city to deal with my final task.
Based on past experiences, I had been extremely worried about playing around with spirit fire seeds unless I was prepared to die. Now, at the end of my life and with the cultivation level of a Peak King who should be able to contain them properly, I was ready to give it a try.
In my storage space, I had a large jade box that I had prepared for just this moment. With a small exertion of will, I sent the spatial seed out of my soul and directly into that box. The transfer went incredibly smoothly and didn't cause any problems.
This proved to me that I would be able to transfer fire seeds out of my soul without issue in the future.
With the seed safely stowed away, I felt more confident.
"System, increase my space affinity to mid eight-star."
Purchase confirmed. Cost 500 million credits. 60,699,004 credits remaining.
I felt a twinge in my soul where the storage space was located, but not the sharp pain from the last time I did this. Whether because I already had a basic affinity or because the seed wasn't there to exacerbate the effects, the increase in my affinity did not cause me to lose consciousness.
Once I was sure everything was fine, I began tests on absorbing different fire seeds into my soul.
First, I tried using the seed of the Cold Mountain Fire. It had somewhat recovered since I first put it in my storage space, but I hadn't fed it any more spirit stones after stabilizing it.
When it entered my soul, it didn't create the blast of energy I had become accustomed to. Instead, it began trying to suck up any energy it could from the environment. Considering the test a success, I quickly stored it back in its jade box before it could recover too much.
Next, I pulled out the seed of the Flowing Metal Spirit Fire that I had bought from the sect and placed it into my soul. This time, my soul was rocked by an explosion of energy. The firestorm was intense enough to crack open my soul, but I was able to easily seal it up with strategically placed will-locks. After running a few tests on the fire, I stored it away once more as well.
Finally, I took out the seed of the Expanding Realms Spirit Fire. When it touched my soul, there was an explosive release of energy far more intense than that caused by the Flowing Metal seed. The cracks in my soul that had barely begun to heal were violently ripped open, and it took everything I could manage to keep the spirit fire from escaping and burning my body to cinders.
I only managed to contain it because the burst of energy was not quite as intense as it had been when Du XiongMing had first shoved it into my soul.
These tests confirmed that moving a seed out of my soul wouldn't be a problem, and I could do so with any seed at any time. Moving a depleted seed into my soul would likewise not cause any problems. However, if I tried to move an energized seed in, I needed to be a Martial Lord, and if it was a Profound-Rank seed, Peak King was a minimum requirement.
I considered swapping to one of my Yellow-Rank seeds since I couldn't casually use the spatial fire, but I decided against it. Yellow-Rank flames were becoming underpowered for my needs. They might be useful early on, but I could just stockpile pills for those levels. I might as well keep the spatial flame in my soul to slowly, passively expand my storage space.
After making that decision, I sighed. I had expected to die when playing around with the fire seeds. Not having done so, I needed to find a different way to bring this life to a close.
I returned to Dragon Peak and made my way to the path to Earth City. At the crossroads, I didn't hesitate. I walked straight toward the Test of Body.
The path led up a steep incline and into a dense jungle environment. I carefully monitored my surroundings, expecting a demon beast to jump out of the foliage and attack me.
I wasn't careful enough.
I was prepared for wild beasts, but I was not prepared for the five cultivators who walked out from behind the trees and surrounded me.
Their leader gave me an evil grin.
"Hand over all your possessions and we'll leave you with an intact corpse."
I was debating whether to try and fight them or simply suicide when the man to his left started shouting.
"Po, hey Po! Look at him! Do you know who that is? It's that guy the elder's been after."
The grin on Po's face widened. "Oh ho. I didn't think we would capture such a prize. People've been waiting for you to come out here for years, and we're the lucky ones to finally catch you. I'll have to thank you for that."
He gave me a mock salute.
"I don't know where you got the balls to murder a descendant of an elder of the Wind Peak, but we'll have to teach you a lesson or we'll lose all respect. You might've been protected in the city, but they can't save you here. Still, you should be happy. This means you get to survive."
When I registered his statement about the Wind Peak, I no longer hesitated. I couldn't afford any mistakes when dealing with them.
I quickly reached into my storage space and pulled a poison pill directly into my mouth.
My heart was beating rapidly in fear, but my enemies had only just started to react when I got the message I was waiting for.
You have died. Calculating…
You died as a Martial King Peak — 10 billion credits awarded.
Total Credits: 10,060,699,004
Affinities
Mid Five-Star – Earth, Wood, Fire
Peak Six-Star – Water, Metal
Peak Seven-Star – Wind, Lightning, Light, Dark
Peak Eight-Star – Karmic Energy
Mid Eight-Star – Space
Mental Library (Updated)
Capacity – Rank 5
Perfect Transcription – Rank 5
Touch Reading – Rank 4
Comprehension Boosts (Updated)
Professions:
Formations – 500,000,000 credits
Skills (Updated)
Pill Appraisal – Rank 3 (Comprehensive)
Complete Status Page
Affinities
Mid Five-Star – Earth, Wood, Fire
Peak Six-Star – Water, Metal
Peak Seven-Star – Wind, Lightning, Light, Dark
Peak Eight-Star – Karmic Energy
Mid Eight-Star – Space
Resistances
Mental Effects (Cultivation Techniques) – 25,000,000 credits
Mental Library
Capacity – Rank 5
Journal – Rank 3
Perfect Transcription – Rank 5
Touch Reading – Rank 4
Comprehension Boosts
Cultivation:
Cultivation Techniques – 520,000 credits
Qi Control – 20,000 credits
Nurturing Disciples – 500,000 credits
Professions:
Alchemy – 520,011 credits
Formations – 500,000,000 credits
Herbalism – 20,000 credits
Martial – 10,000,000 credits
Social:
Reading Emotions (True) – 25,000,000 credits
Skills
Enhanced Soul Growth – 20,000 credits
Pill Appraisal – Rank 3 (Comprehensive)
Technique Appraisal – Rank 3 (Earth)
Language (Western Han)
Chapter 153 – Life 67, Age 25, Martial Master Peak
When I awoke in my apartment in the Academy, I instantly started scanning my soul for any possible signs that it had somehow been infected. After my first thorough search, I didn't find anything, but I didn't let that stop me and proceeded to check twice more. Still not satisfied, I had to ask the System.
"System, is my soul infected by any gu?"
Cost 100,000 credits.
"Purchase!"
Purchase confirmed. 10,060,599,004 Credits remaining.
No.
That finally let me breathe a sigh of relief. It might have been a bit of paranoia on my part, but I was terrified of the possibilities, especially in my now weakened state. The second half of the Master-level classes was supposed to focus on soul cultivation, right? I needed to use that as an opportunity to look into soul defenses.
As I sat in my room alone, I worried about what might have happened if I had been even a second slower in swallowing that pill. Would that have given my attackers time to infect me? How long would it take? Wen had needed me to swallow a pill, but did these people? They were Martial Kings, so they should have more powerful methods.
I needed to learn more about gu and what they could do. They were a serious potential danger.
The thought made me shiver. Until a few years ago, I had never even heard of such a thing. Now, they came out of nowhere and were a serious threat. How many other hidden dangers lurked in the world that might be able to end me? How many times had I unknowingly courted actual, true, final death?
I had been worried about trusting anyone with the secret of my resets because of a fear that it might lead to them soul-killing me or somehow permanently enslaving me. Now, I was facing the very real possibility of that happening withouttelling anyone.
I needed to talk to someone I could trust who knew about the world and the dangers it possessed. I needed someone to help me prepare for such dangers before I had to face them. I needed someone intelligent enough to understand the value of my resets and might have new ideas on how to take better advantage of them. As long as I kept the true power and mechanics of my System hidden, I could afford to tell someone about just the resets.
There was something else I had to consider as well: Time.
I may have an unlimited amount of time available to me, but I couldn't do everything that I needed to do all at once. Originally, I had made a 100-year plan. Ten resets that lasted ten years each. While I always kept this plan in mind to help push myself forward, I had completely blown through these time limits.
The first life started things smoothly enough, and I was able to end it on time. However, the second life lasted nearly 20 years, and the third was nearly 30. I wasn't exactly sure how long it had been in total, but I estimated I had burned through nearly 55 years already.
I had to return to the Wastes to settle things, but I still didn't have the tools I needed to do that. Going with the original 100-year limit, I had 45 left. After those 45 years, I would allow myself to finish any active projects and settle the life I was in the middle of without regrets, but after that, I would force myself to leave and return to my beginnings in the Wastes.
That would mean leaving the Academy and everyone I had come to know here. I had been safeguarding my classmates' memories in this 'true' timeline, but once I left, they would forget everything. It would be as if it never happened for them, and anything I did to help them would vanish.
I wanted a way to prevent that. I needed a way to prevent that. I had to keep Yan, LiTing, JiaQi, and YuLong real.
If I wanted to accomplish everything I needed to do, I couldn't do it on my own. Learning all of the skills and knowledge I would need to protect myself from hidden dangers, solving the problem with Yan's family, finding a way to permanently settle my debts in the Wastes, and discovering a way to have real relationships with people through an endless time loop. With unlimited time, I could accomplish all of this, but in only 45 years? No, I needed help.
These considerations were what brought me to Zhuge Yan's door.
Yan was far more capable than I was when developing strategies and tactics. I could only hope that his insights into the value of my situation would prevent him from betraying my trust.
When Yan opened his door, he didn't seem overly surprised to see me.
"What are you planning?"
Instead of letting him take the lead, I gestured to the small sitting area inside his room, silently asking for permission to enter.
After sitting down, I remained quiet as I tried to decide what I wanted to say. It was Yan who broke the silence.
"Fang? What's going on?"
I looked him in the eyes and mustered my resolve.
"I need your help."
I reached into my storage space and brought out the journal he had given me in Mortal City. I placed it on the table and then set my hand firmly upon it.
"I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm lying about my blessing."
He carefully nodded. "It seems that way, but the school has ways to detect if you aren't telling the truth. From what I know, you've never failed such checks."
"Yes… well, what I reported was just a small corner of the blessing I was granted. The core of it is far more complicated."
Suddenly realizing a potential problem, I began subvocalizing.
"System, how much to place a barrier around Yan and me for the remainder of this conversation so that nothing we say can be overheard by anyone who might attempt to listen in?"
Barrier capable of preventing anyone who may choose to listen to this conversation from doing so. Cost 275 million credits.
With that price, who was that barrier designed to protect us from? If such high-level cultivators were trying to listen in, I definitely needed to stop that from happening.
"Purchase."
Purchase confirmed. 9,785,599,004 credits remaining.
Our surroundings became slightly blurry. Yan raised an eyebrow at this but didn't speak.
"Just a little protection from eavesdroppers." I smiled weakly at him. "Anyway, regarding my blessing… It is a form of time reversion. When I die, I can return to specific points in the past."
A look of suspicion crossed Yan's face, but he didn't interrupt.
"I just completed one of these reversions. At this point, I don't think I can handle things by myself anymore. I need your help."
I tapped on the book.
"Last time I was in this room, I asked you to take notes about what would happen over the next few years. I can't fix everything myself. I also want to push my cultivation further and faster than I would normally be able to. I want to work with you to try and accomplish this."
"You are saying that you can live hundreds of years, die, and then return to the past like it never happened. When you do so, you bring back all your memories and abilities with you as well as at least one book. Is that right?"
I nodded.
I could see the gears begin to turn in his mind.
"And I'm assuming, if you cultivate essence instead of just absorbing it, you will bring enhanced affinities with you to the past as well. Is that about right?"
A sheepish expression crossed my face. "Ye… Yes."
Yan sat in silent contemplation for several minutes. As he did, I could see a war of contractions flow through his being. He had feelings of excitement, happiness, desperation, and fear all mixed up in a war for dominance. Finally, he looked at me and spoke in a grave tone.
"You set up protections so no one could hear us?"
I nodded.
"Fine. I need some proof of your claim. I consider you a friend, but there are limits. I'm willing to risk my own life on a crazy gamble, but trusting this ability of yours would mean far more than just that. I need to know for certain that what you are saying is true before I risk pulling my family into this. I also need to know about a possible limitation. If I die and then you die, you will revert to the past and I will be alive again, correct?"
I nodded once more.
"Then tell me what I am thinking about."
Understanding his purpose, I subvocalized once more.
"System, set up a secondary reset point for this moment in time."
Purchase confirmed. Cost 52,532,480 credits. 9,733,066,524 credits remaining.
"I've established the reversion point. After I die, I will know everything you tell me."
Yan drew in a deep breath. A look of fear and desperation I had never seen in him before appeared in his eyes.
"Oolong tea."
"Alright, I'll see you soon."
I started to prepare for another reset, but Yan stopped me.
"This continent is controlled by the Nine Rivers Saint. Beneath him are the three clans led by Martial Ancestors. The Sovereigns on this continent are all outer elders of these clans who only care about accruing enough credit with their clans to be allowed to return to the Central Continent. They are here to absorb the most promising cultivators into their Bloodline. That is what is above the Ruler Tier. The Bloodline Tier. Sovereign, Spirit, Ancestor. At that level, one must steal the future potential from people of their own Bloodline. That's what it means to cultivate karmic energy, to steal karmic potential from people. The clans harvest cultivators from this continent and use a ceremony to induct them into their bloodlines to fuel their advancement. The only exception is Ning ZeKun. He—"
Yan spoke in a rush, trying to get everything out at once, but he was too slow.
A lightning bolt crashed down, tore through the roof of the building, and struck Yan with the full fury of the Heavens.
He was obliterated, body and soul.
I wanted to freeze in terror, but I knew I couldn't let myself do so. That strike would draw others here soon.
As fast as I could, I reached into my storage space, pulled out a poison pill, and swallowed it.
You have died. Calculating…
You died as a Martial Master Peak. 20,000 credits awarded.
Total Credits: 9,733,086,524
My body was shaking in fear. What had I just seen? The power contained in that lightning bolt… It was… too much.
I opened my eyes and saw Yan sitting in front of me.
I could barely speak.
"Oo… Oolong tea."
My eyes unfocused as I stared ahead.
"What was that? You said—"
Yan raised a hand and cut me off. "Stop. I am not allowed to discuss certain topics."
He leaned over and pulled his old journal from my unresisting fingers. I sat there trying to cope with everything as he quickly skimmed through the book and picked out a few important details.
"Fang, this is going to take time for me to go through. What can you tell me about what happens?"
"Right… right… I don't know much. I was in the sect… You just said that your family targeted JiaQi and YuLong after they left the Academy. LiTing was assassinated during a duel in the school."
His eyes flashed with anger. "So, we all need to stay in the Academy and away from questionable 'duels' then."
"Not just that. We need to stay in the same class. I can provide resources so that LiTing never has to display her talent. Also… I might have some level of protection from another source."
I took out Emperor Li's token.
"You are working with Elder Li?"
"It's… complicated. You could say that I'm his disciple, but he might not know it."
Yan's eyes narrowed. "Don't trust him. Now that you know… Your situation might give you some protection, but never let him learn about it. He is far too dangerous."
I nodded in agreement. I didn't understand enough about Emperor Li and his motives to tell him anything. I would accept his teachings and return my gratitude tenfold, but I wouldn't dare risk trusting him with the secrets of my rebirths.
I brought the topic back around to the present.
"We need to go meet with the others. What are we going to do? What should we tell them?"
"They need to know. Not everything, but they need to know some of it." Yan was adamant. "Their help will be invaluable. LiTing and JiaQi will be especially valuable if they can advance their professions far enough, and if YuLong can continue improving his martial skills, he could be a powerful shield against our enemies."
I needed to ask a question, but I had to do so in a circumspect way.
"Yan… is there a way to cultivate through Ruler Tier without using karmic energy? Can someone advance to Lord and… beyond… without it?"
He breathed out slowly. "None that I am aware of. From everything I've learned, Lords required it to advance."
"Then, what are we trying to do here? If that's the only way forward, we're going to have to walk the same path as everyone else. Is this… Is what we do going to accomplish anything?"
He looked at me and answered carefully.
"Survival. I didn't leave my clan and come here to change what is. I did it for my own future and survival. I don't know if there is any bright future to be had through the Academy or the sect. There might not be, but I do know there wasn't one for me if I had stayed in my clan. If we can do well enough to attract the personal attention of the Saint, maybe…"
He trailed off, unable to say any more.