The Undying Immortal System

My time at the Blue Wind Pavilion was like a vacation. I had been on the brink ever since my first rebirth, and I finally had some honest-to-gods downtime. Typically at this point, I would be forcing myself to cultivate as rapidly as possible, but right now I didn't even have a cultivation technique I was willing to use.

My only ongoing obligation was to make a few pills a day. I couldn't do much with the little energy in my body, so my routine was to just make two or three pills and then rest comfortably until the next day.

Originally, I had planned to take some of this time to explore the city, which I learned was called Dragon Gate City, but thoughts of the Su Clan dissuaded me. I didn't know if they would be looking for a disappeared pill boy, but I wasn't willing to risk being captured or killed by them just to have a little outdoor fun. Better to just stay inside and relax.

As far as I was concerned, the Pavilion was relatively generous. Peonies were 50 copper. Workshops were 2 silver an hour. Rooms were 5 silver a day. Food was 1 silver a day. I had no idea if this meant my room was over or underpriced. 5 silver a day felt expensive for a small bedroom, but it was located in the fanciest building in the city, and the Pavilion wasn't exactly a hotel. In any case, I didn't worry overly much since a single High-Purity pill a day more than paid for all my expenses. The rest was pure profit.

During my rest, I took some time to read and learn a bit more about the world around me. The most surprising thing was that while the Su Clan was the complete ruler of this entire part of the world, they were actually quite weak. I didn't quite understand it, but it seemed like any of the surrounding powers could easily crush the Su Clan. They just didn't. This gave me hope that in the future, if I decided to go on a killing spree for some reason, I would have a decent chance of success.

Other than plotting the inevitable downfall of some evil overlords, there was one more task I had to take care of.

Previously, I had stashed a pill in my storage space for when I started cultivating. After my first week here, I decided to go ahead and sell it to boost my cash flow. That was when I found out that its medicinal power had been all but destroyed. It was completely worthless. Sitting in my storage space and not inside a jade bottle, the medicinal energy of the pill had all but vanished.

Pill bottles were typically very cheap. They were made from low-grade jade and roughly cut into the shape of a bottle. This low-grade jade wasn't a great insulator of medicinal energy, but it was good enough. Make the bottle walls thick enough and it would work. This kept costs low enough that bottles were not even factored into the price when buying and selling pills.

I needed something special though. My storage space was a box two centimeters in each dimension. Pills were spheres roughly one and a half centimeters in diameter. That meant I needed a 'bottle' with walls no thicker than two millimeters. It would have to be specially crafted out of a high-grade jade to be effective.

I was averaging roughly 12 silver a day in profit at this point. Purchasing this bottle cost me over two gold, wiping out nearly a month's worth of my savings. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Having a pill ready to go at the beginning of each reset would easily make up for the one-time cost.

Following that, I also had to pay the Pavilion another 50 silver for guaranteed safe transport to the sect, taking another large chunk out of my finances. All told, I left Dragon Gate City with a little over 3 gold to my name. Not a fortune, but far more than I had entered with.

The Twin Mountains Sect recruitment was to be held in River Rock, a small town directly controlled by the sect and located right outside its gates.

The Twin Mountains Sect was the closest sect to Dragon Gate City, and the city was the closest large population center to the sect, but 'closest' was relative. The Pavilion's carriage still took several days to reach the place.

The trip to River Rock was relatively uneventful. The Western Wastes was an unusually safe area, and the trip was made even safer by traveling in a coach marked by the Blue Wind Pavilion, which no one wanted to offend.

The only dark spot in the journey came a day before its end.

The carriage had made a couple of stops in small towns on the way to the sect. This was a regular supply and delivery route that I had purchased a seat in, not a personal carriage service. At these stops, the driver would go out and exchange various goods with people in each town. I did not pay this much mind since it was none of my business. However, near the end of the trip, something different happened. A young man entered the carriage and sat down across from me.

"What? There's already someone in here?" His tone was sharp, and he gave me a look of disgust. "My father will hear about this. I was expecting a private journey to the sect."

I gave a slight nod of apology but tried to not engage with him.

We sat in silence for only a short while before the child decided to speak at me again.

"Boy, are you traveling to the Twin Mountains Sect? I doubt someone like you would be accepted. The sect only accepts talented disciples."

I didn't respond, but that didn't seem to faze him. "Hah, very well, you shall be my lackey. Follow behind me when we arrive, do what I say, and maybe my father will allow you to become a servant. My family is the Wang family of Prospering Prosperity Village. You should know that we are the most powerful force for miles around."

The child continued to talk, but I didn't pay much attention to him. I think he even started threatening me at some point, but I can't really remember. The thing was, he wouldn't dare to do anything while we were both in a Pavilion's carriage. I had paid for safety.

Three days after I had left Dragon Gate City, we arrived in River Rock. The selection competition would begin the next day.

After dropping off the young master of the Wang family, the carriage took me to a secluded little inn. I was glad about this since I didn't want him to know where I was staying. I exited the carriage, said goodbye to the driver, and went to rest up for the challenges I would face in the coming day.

The number of people that lived in River Rock was rather small. The town was nothing more than the gateway to the sect, so the only jobs available involved trading things to and from the sect. Usually, it was a sleepy place on the edge of civilization.

This all changed during the sect's disciple selection.

Starting roughly a week before each selection, thousands of hopefuls from all around the Wastes would flood into town. They were a mix of both alchemists and fighters, the two specialties of the Twin Mountains Sect.

Cramming countless young men and women into a small area and giving them little in the form of entertainment generally wasn't a good idea. As it Turned out that when those young men and women were cultivators, it was a recipe for disaster.

Of course, this was all part of the selection process for the sect. The sect did nothing to stop the cultivators from fighting each other. They encouraged it. Anyone who could not survive until the disciple selection took place was someone they didn't want. However, there were likely some elders guarding the town to at least prevent too much harm to the locals.

Because of the precarious situation, I decided to wait in my inn room and stay hidden away. When the time was right, I left my room and headed toward the sect. To my delight, the day of the selection was much calmer than those preceding it since everyone was filled with nervous anticipation for the events ahead.

As I was walking down one of the town's small dirt roads with well-maintained wooden buildings to either side of me, I heard a shout.

"That's him! That's the cur that insulted his betters yesterday!"

I looked in the direction of the shout and realized that it was a young man pointing directly at me. He was standing with a group of maybe five other thugs.

It was that child from the carriage that kept talking about how great his family was. But… I didn't remember insulting him. I was pretty sure I only ignored him. Maybe that's enough for some people.

He addressed the man at the front of his group with extreme deference. "Brother TianLei, please assist me in teaching him a lesson. He did not care that I am your little brother. He was not willing to give you any face at all. If he does not kneel down and apologize to you today, I will write my name backward!"

I took a closer look at this 'Brother TianLei' and was shocked. It was the same young man that Rudy had brought with him right before I was tortured to death. He looked almost exactly the same. What was he doing here?

'Brother TianLei' gave me a look of disgust. "Kid, do you know who you've offended? I am about to become the number one new disciple of this sect. You dare disrespect me?"

As he said this, his arms exploded with lightning, and bright flashes of electricity crackled up and down his arms.

How was I going to handle this? These two young masters were intent on using me as a stepping stone. What was the right way to respond and get out of this in one piece? The night before, I had heard a few people shout 'A man's knees are coated in gold. A real man kneels only to his parents!' I'm sure everything worked out great for them, but they weren't me.

I carefully approached Brother TianLei and gave him a deep bow. "I have long heard Brother TianLei's great name. I would never disrespect him. I apologize for any offense I have given, Brother TianLei."

I wanted to push all of the blame onto this Wang kid, but I quickly realized that it wasn't a good idea. It might be easy to drive a wedge between the two of them, but they would almost certainly deal with me first.

A cruel smile spread over the faces of all the boys.

Brother TianLei looked down at me. "Very good. You know your place. You will follow me from now on."

"Brother TianLei, I am not worthy," I dropped into a kowtow. "I am not worthy of following you. I will just disappear from your sight."

"Are you questioning me?" TianLei sneered at me.

"No, no sir. I am just not worthy of following behind you."

TianLei kicked my shoulder, knocking me to the ground. "If I tell you to follow me, you follow. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir, yes sir, but I am not worthy. I must not follow you."

TianLei kicked me in the gut.

"Still not listening?" He kicked again.

TianLei gave me one last hard kick in the side. "Fine, if you don't want to follow me, then you don't have to. All you have to do is crawl under my crotch!"

Weakly, I pulled my battered body forward. TianLei spread his legs and I crawled under them. As I did, his entire group of lackeys burst out in laughter.

TianLei laughed as well, unable to contain his amusement at my battered form. "Come on, we've wasted enough time. Let's go to the selection!"

After they left, I just lay there for several minutes. First because I was injured pretty badly and needed a moment to gather myself, and second because I didn't want my movements to draw their attention back to me.

When I did stand up, I found that my clothes were torn and covered in dirt. I didn't have much time before the sect's disciple selection was set to begin, and I didn't have any spare clothes regardless. At this point, I personally didn't care too much about my appearance, but it would be unfortunate to arrive at the sect in such a sorry state.

However, I was left with no choice. If I didn't hurry, I would miss my chance to join the sect.