The Undying Immortal System

I arrived at an expansive square where thousands of sect hopefuls had already gathered. Unlike most of the town, the ground of the square was cobbled with dull white stones that had become cracked and pitted by the passage of countless years.

On the far side of the square was a raised dais where a middle-aged man sat and examined all of the young men and women as they milled about the square. To either side of this dais were large paifang arches that crossed over the roads as they stretched off in the direction of the two mountains that rose up behind the scene. That was where the members of the Twin Mountains Sect resided. From here, I could only see two barren peaks of gray stone as they pierced through the foliage that blanketed the mountains.

As I waited in the square for the selection to begin, ever more people continued to gather in the square.

The man on the dais was in no rush to start the proceedings. He casually waited as people from around the town slowly made their way to the square. I had rushed, expecting to be late, but over an hour after I arrived, I was still just standing there.

Finally, when the sun was high in the sky, the man stood and addressed the crowd.

"Welcome to the Disciple Selection of the Twin Mountains Sect. Though the space on our mountains is limited and there are many of you here, we do not turn away anyone worthy of joining us. If fortune favors both you and us, then everyone will join us as a new disciple by day's end."

At this announcement, there was mild cheering throughout the crowd. For many here, joining this sect was their only hope for the future. Others, though, stood with smirks on their faces as they looked at the more excited members of the crowd.

Once the cheering died down, the man gestured to the arches on his left and right. "In front of you are two archways. These arches lead to the two different branches of the sect. If you follow the path to your right, you will find the Martial Peak. This is where the fighters of the sect learn and train. If you wish to become a hero in the future, this is the path of your destiny. If you follow the path to your left, you will find the Alchemy Peak. This is where our alchemists work for the betterment of the entire sect."

He held his arms wide with each one pointed at one of the two arches by his side.

"During each selection, you may only attempt a single path. If you fail, you may try again next year as long as you still meet the requirements. Anyone may try to become a sect alchemist. To become a sect warrior, however, you must be no older than 18 and have a cultivation base of at least Martial Disciple 6. If you do not meet these requirements, you will not be allowed to participate in the selection. We will not question anyone who leaves now, but if you try to sneak in, you will be punished."

At this point, the man waited for a short while to allow everyone the opportunity to leave discretely if they so wished, though none did.

"Very well. Selections will be carried out in groups of 500. You may begin entering the arches. Once this quota has been met, a barrier will prevent any further entrants until the previous group has finished."

With that, the man sat back down and simply watched events unfold.

The moment someone passed through an arch, they disappeared. It looked as if they were being teleported away. My own short teleport across a city had cost me all the credits I would earn from dying as a Martial Disciple 3, so it wasn't cheap. Was the sect willing to spend so much energy teleporting thousands of potential recruits just to appear mysterious? That seemed highly unlikely, but no other explanation seemed to fit.

I held back and didn't join the first people who rushed to the archways, and it might have been a good thing I did so. Shortly after people began converging on the 'warrior' arch, there was a bright flash of lightning. Dozens of people were blasted backward, many of them seriously injured.

I looked back at the dais, but the man didn't even look at the commotion. He had taken out a small teacup and was contentedly sipping his drink.

So, yeah. The sect didn't care overly much about our safety. Better to be careful here.

It wasn't until nearly three hours later that the first group to enter the alchemist arch completed their exam and a new group was allowed to enter. In contrast, the warrior arch was cycling at intervals of less than an hour each. Though it had taken a long time for the first group to finish, few people rushed to join the second group, so when it reopened, I had an opportunity. To not waste any more time than necessary, I hurriedly entered.

As soon as I passed through the opening, the world around me twisted.

I stood in a new courtyard that looked very much like the one I had just exited. It had the same dais at its far end, but this time an elderly man was sitting in its chair. The arch to his left was still painted red, but the arch on his right was the dark black of failure. However, the most important change to my surroundings was that instead of the courtyard being packed with young hopefuls, this one held hundreds of alchemy workstations.

A young man dressed in robes similar to the man on the dais addressed me as I entered.

"Stand in front of a workstation. Touch nothing until told to do so or you will be expelled."

His disinterest in me was palpable. He didn't even look at me to see if I had any questions. He just turned to wait for the next person to pass through the arch.

I quickly moved to a workstation nestled near the center of the courtyard. I had no desire to try and stand out by selecting a more conspicuous position. Soon thereafter, more and more people began pouring through the arch and started trying to figure out where they should go. It was not long before everyone found a workstation and quietly waited for the elder to speak.

"Welcome to the Twin Mountains Sect's Alchemy Disciple Selection. I am an elder of the outer sect. You may address me as Elder Zang. In the future, I hope to see you all successfully enter the outer sect."

He waved at a workstation that had been raised above the crowd so that everyone could see it. On top of it were the same items that had been placed on all of the other workstations.

"In front of each of you is a workstation with everything you will need to pass the preliminary selection exam. First, on the table, you will see two scrolls. The first is a simple fire qi cultivation technique. For those who have not yet cultivated their fire qi, this will allow you to quickly do so. Having a strong cultivation base is essential when concocting alchemical pills. In this exam, you will be at a disadvantage when compared to those who have long practiced this technique, but you do not need to worry. You are not competing against each other. As long as you succeed, it matters not how others perform."

Walking back to the front of his dais, a wide grin spread across his face.

"I expect many of you have come here because you have heard that you can get a free cultivation technique. This is absolutely true! You will not be permitted to take the scroll away with you, but you are encouraged to continue cultivating the technique after you leave. If you are unable to reach a high enough proficiency with it to concoct a pill within the next few hours, train with this technique and come back next year."

There was a bit of shuffling at this announcement. I could see that many people were excited to begin cultivating. I, however, was markedly less so.

The sect was giving out a free cultivation technique to anyone who came here. What did that mean? It was a trap, obviously, but what was the trap? Was the sect so brazen as to hand out slave mantras to thousands of applicants? That didn't feel right. WuJing had seemed like he was on the level, so I doubted he would send me somewhere I would just be enslaved.

I didn't yet have enough information to draw any firm conclusions about this technique, but I would not be cultivating it until I had more information. Still… It was a free technique…

"Next to this technique, you will find the instructions for how to concoct a Rank 1 Basic Qi Gathering Pill. Most of you will be well acquainted with it, but this exam is open to everyone, and we encourage everyone who wants to learn alchemy to use this exam as a free lesson! So, I will demonstrate what you should do."

He picked up a blue flower. "This is blue peony. I'm sure everyone here has seen them growing in the wild around these parts. When harvested in the right way and at the right time, it is the only ingredient needed for the Basic Qi Gathering Pill."

He started giving roughly the same instructions and demonstration that Rudy had given me so long ago. It was nostalgic, kind of. The result of this display was a small pellet that he held up and showed to everyone.

"This is a Low-Purity Rank 1 Basic Qi Gathering Pill. The more pill toxins you remove, the better your final result. Pills are ranked from Low-Purity to High-Purity. Above High-Purity are Perfect pills, where all of the toxins have been removed. As I'm sure you know, the higher the purity, the greater the value. This is especially true of Perfect pills!"

He placed the pill into a jade bottle and set it aside.

"Your test today is simple. Create Qi Gathering Pills. You will gain points based on their purity. A Low-Purity pill is worth a single point. Mid-Purity pills are worth 5. Highs are worth 10. If someone can manage to make a Perfect pill, it will be worth 30 points."

Why did that sound familiar?

"Each person has 10 peonies to work with. You must turn in pills worth a total of 5 points. If you do, you will become a sect disciple and be trained in the Dao of alchemy. Though you only need 5 points to pass, you will be rewarded for earning more, so do your best."

After giving us this encouragement, his face turned somber.

"Finally, I want you to be very clear about the rules. One, the pills you turn in must come from flowers provided during this trial, you may not use outside pills or ingredients. Two, no fighting. You may not fight with anyone, in any way, during the trial. Three, you may not use any form of pressure to force someone to give you pills that they concocted. This includes using your family or status. Four, you may not intentionally interfere with another participant's efforts. We have proctors watching everything, so you will not need to report any breaches of the rules yourself. We will deal with it."

With that, the elderly man sat back down on his chair and waved one hand.

"Begin!"

I did not immediately begin working on concocting pills. My mind kept drifting back to the cultivation technique. Using it was a bad idea, but that didn't mean I shouldn't still learn it. Time was the only issue. Quickly memorizing a complex cultivation technique would be difficult.

I had an idea and began whispering to myself as subtly as I could.

"System, would it be possible to create, like, a mental bookshelf of all the techniques I've ever read? So that, if I read something one time, a copy will appear on the bookshelf for me to reference later?"

Rank 1 Mental Library. Cost 1,000 credits.

Note: This library will create a copy of any mortal or Rank 1 book, scroll, or manual you read in the future. It will record information as you see it, and it will not contain information you have read in the past.

"Why only Rank 1? Higher Rank books are all still just ink and paper. If anything, shouldn't the cost be based on the size of the book, not the Rank? Why do I need to pay more for a library just to copy down the words in a scroll that describes a Rank 2 technique?"

The cost of that information is not possible to calculate at this time.

That was a cost far above anything I could afford, and at that price, the library's limitations were a bit annoying.

I had only 10 credits to work with. I considered trying to use them to have a perfect memory of this scroll specifically, but what was the point? The technique was almost certainly a dud, and it was possible that I would need those credits in the future. So, since I didn't have an easy way to memorize the technique, I put it out of my mind.

I didn't need the instructions for concocting a Qi Gathering Pill, so I ignored that too.

I needed to focus on making some drugs.

While I had 10 chances to concoct a pill, I only had enough mental energy for two or three. If I pushed to make the first one as good as I could, I might only be able to make a single pill. What would be the better play? Was one superb pill better than three mediocre ones? Hard to say, but I decided to go with quantity. I reasoned that even if I tried my best, failure was a possibility. Limiting myself to one pill would mean that a single screw-up was all it would take for me to fail the exam, so it was better to give myself a bit of a buffer.

In the end, my worries may have been unfounded. I carefully and efficiently created three Mid-Purity pills. While working in the Blue Wind Pavilion, I had almost always gotten at least one High-Purity pill out of a batch like this, but I didn't push for that level during the exam since I was working to conserve my energy.

All things told, I thought that I had been pretty fast, but when I looked up, I found that over two dozen workstations were already vacant when I finished. Maybe they decided to make only one pill? I had completed the assignment after the first pill too, but I had chosen to concoct as many as I could. Maybe others just didn't see the value in the extra credit on offer.

No worries. This wasn't a competition, and even if there were competitive elements that I didn't know about, I already knew I wasn't the best alchemist here, so there was no harm done.

I gathered my three pills and the seven extra flowers and then headed to where the evaluations were being done. I handed them over to the man there, and he gave them a quick once over.

Once he was satisfied, he spoke to me with a clipped, perfunctory tone.

"Three Mid-Purity, 15 points. Here's your identity jade." He handed me a bracelet with a large green jade embedded in it. "The extra flowers are yours to keep. Go through the red arch and you'll enter the sect."