The Undying Immortal System

The following year, I studied and practiced the various Rank 2 alchemy techniques in the elder's library. The limit of only being allowed to view one technique per month gave me just enough time to grasp the basics of one technique before moving on to the next.

This didn't allow me to reach any level of mastery with the techniques, but that wasn't my goal. Instead, I wanted to gain a basic understanding of all the techniques first. Then, I would be able to build out a more comprehensive methodology for studying them in further detail.

During this year, I also took the time to carefully read through every Rank 1 technique in the elder's library. I didn't need the fighting or cultivation techniques yet, and the alchemy techniques were all inferior to the Rank 2 manuals I already had access to, but I diligently copied them down in case they proved useful in the future. I wanted to read the Rank 2 cultivation and fighting manuals as well, but since I could only read one a month, I had to first focus on what would bring me the most immediate benefit.

After this year of study, I was able to make Meridian Builder Pills efficacies as high as 105%. This was still far from what Wen Hao's blessing was able to accomplish, but it was a definite improvement over my previous efforts.

At the same time, I took Deacon Liu's advice and started slowly increasing my cultivation base. When I hit Martial Master 4, I began to feel changes in my thought processes, but they were easy enough to suppress when necessary.

I would have continued this slow improvement in seclusion, but Deacon Liu interrupted it. The competition to select new inner sect disciples was about to take place, and he wanted me to watch so that I could better understand my place in the sect.

There were no venues capable of hosting large competitions in the village or on the mountain, so the Inner Sect Challenge was held in the same arena in the city as the Outer Sect Competition.

No nominal or servant disciples were allowed to attend, nor were they even informed about the event. The stands held only inner sect disciples, outer sect disciples, and deacons. The competition was to be judged by a panel of three elders who were sitting on a large dais at the front of the stadium.

Below them, twenty competitors stood on the gray brick arena floor. Next to each of them was a well-maintained alchemy workbench made of burnished dark wood, and atop each workbench was an aged, well-used pill furnace.

Standing on a small, raised platform behind the elders, placed above everyone else in the arena, a man dressed in elaborately embroidered robes of a dark blue hue oversaw the final preparations for the impending competition. He monitored the deacons as they delivered bundles of herbs to each of the competitors, and the elders occasionally approached him for short discussions.

When everything was ready and the audience had all been seated, he walked to the front of his podium and turned to face the crowd.

"Welcome, everyone. I am Tan GaoFeng, the Deputy Sect Master for the Twin Mountains Sect in charge of the Alchemy Peak. If you are new to the sect and this is your first time at one of these competitions, I welcome you."

There was a subdued, polite applause at these words, but it was quickly cut off.

"The Inner Sect Challenge is held once every three years. Every outer sect disciple who has reached the realm of Martial Grandmaster has been invited to participate. Unlike the competition to become an outer sect member, there is no set number for how many may be promoted to the inner sect. Instead, our panel of esteemed elders will decide who would be a good fit for the inner sect. This is done on an individual basis, so each competitor only needs to worry about doing their best."

While the Sect Master's words indicated the participants weren't competing against each other, there was no way that was true. If promotion were only about individual merit, there would be no reason for such an open competition. No, I was sure the disciples' relative performances would be taken into account. It would be difficult for the people at the bottom of the pack to advance no matter how well they did.

The Sect Master, unaware of my inner monologue, turned to the competitors and continued his speech.

"For this competition, you will all be making three pills. We will start with the most straightforward, a fire-focused Meridian Builder Pill. This pill should be familiar to everyone, so I hope you will use it to show off the true height of your abilities."

I watched as the alchemists on the arena floor turned to their workbenches and inspected their ingredients. As I had rarely interacted with the other disciples in the sect, almost no one down there was familiar to me, but there was one person I recognized. Located in the middle of the front row was the young man I had competed against in the Pill Hall, Wen Hao. I was looking forward to seeing how he could make such high-efficacy pills.

For the most part, the process the other disciples used to concoct pills mirrored my own efforts. After melting and purifying the herbs, they used the Pill Empowerment technique to enhance the medicinal power of their creations. There were only minuscule differences in the skill levels of the various disciples, and it was clear that everyone here was an expert with Meridian Builder Pills.

The only outlier was Wen Hao. As he worked, streams of energy flowed into his pill furnace. I had never seen anything like it before. While the Empowerment technique used personal qi to fortify a pill, he was pulling energy straight from the air and infusing it into his herbs. This had to be the effect of his blessing, but I couldn't even begin to understand what it was doing.

After everyone was finished, their pills were collected and taken away to be judged. The results were not immediately announced, and I couldn't accurately estimate the potency of pills from so far away, so it was hard to know who was doing well and who was failing. However, since I didn't see many notable differences in the concoction processes of the various competitors, I guessed that everyone was roughly equal at this stage, except for Wen Hao, of course.

Once the judging was complete, Sect Master Tan GaoFeng stood and walked to the front of his podium once more.

"Next, you will all need to make a water-focused Meridian Builder Pill. Everyone has a natural advantage when making the fire version, but this one should stretch your abilities slightly more."

Everyone turned to their workbenches once more, but this time, no one was able to use the empowerment technique to enhance their pill's efficacy. They would all be limited to the base maximum efficacy of 100%, except for Wen Hao. Once more, the blessed alchemist pulled energy from the surrounding environment and infused it into his pill, raising it beyond the level that anyone else could even hope to match.

My eyes were so focused on Wen Hao's process that I barely noticed when the young woman next to him began acting strange. Instead of working on her pill, she called a deacon over and asked him a question. After listening to her request, the deacon approached the Sect Master and then went off to an area under the stadium. Shortly after, he returned and handed an additional herb to the female disciple. Looking at it, I could see that it had some form of water-attributed medicinal energy, but I was unfamiliar with its exact effect.

It appeared that she was going to add an extra herb to the beginning of the ingredient chain to boost the pill's efficacy. This wasn't impossible, but randomly adding an herb could have disastrous effects on the medicinal properties of the final pill, and finding a suitable sixth ingredient for this pill would be incredibly difficult.

To my surprise, she did not add this additional pill directly into the pill furnace. Instead, she used a technique to forcibly rip the medicinal energy out of the herb. In doing so, the energy lost its structure which in turn caused it to lose all its medicinal properties. She was left with pure, wild water energy. She then infused this water energy into the wood-based herb and began concocting her pill.

I had never even heard of such a process before. Doing this would require an extremely high water affinity, some type of blessing, or possibly both. If this were possible with only a high affinity, it should be a common technique for use with fire herbs since every alchemist had a high fire affinity.

After considering this for a moment, I realized why I may have never run into this technique before. There was no reason to use it unless you had an extremely high affinity for a qi type you weren't cultivating. I was already using fire qi to boost the efficacy of my pills. Using medicinal energy ripped from an herb instead would just be wasteful.

The second round quickly ended, and I was sure that Wen Hao and this girl had outperformed every other disciple present. They were all good, but no one else had shown anything special. With the difficulty I had in entering the outer sect, I was worried about my prospects for entering the inner sect, but my skills were not much different from the average competitor. Only Wen Hao and the young woman had shown skills I couldn't currently compete against.

Once the judging for the second round was complete, Sect Master Tan made his way to the front of his podium once more.

"The final pill for today will be a Rank 2 Health Rejuvenation Pill."

Rejuvenation pills were not popular since they slowly healed injuries over an extended period. The overall effect was better than pills that healed wounds instantly, but they were only useful when a person was injured enough to require a pill to help them heal while not injured to the point of needing instant healing. Deacon Liu had me make a few of them over the years, but they were among the least requested.

These pills only required three herbs. One with metal energy, one with water, and one with wood. This formed a constructive sequence to empower the final wood-based healing effects.

At this point, several of the competitors must have been feeling uneasy. Only two people so far had stood out, and this would be their last chance to do so.

Except for Wen Hao, no one had a way to boost the effectiveness of this final pill. Even the girl from before didn't use any fancy techniques and started concocting the pill in a conventional manner. However, around half of the contestants decided to push their limits.

They began the concoction process by infusing the metal-based herb with the Cold Mountain Fire. They lacked the finesse required by the empowerment technique, and rashly infusing an herb with one's spirit fire would lead to heartache more times than not, but this rough application of energy at least gave them a chance to make something exceptional.

I watched as one pill after another began to collapse. Nearly everyone who tried to use their spirit fire to enhance their pill failed immediately. Of the dozen who made the attempt, only two succeeded. I didn't know how powerful their final pill would be, but the smiles on their faces showed they believed it would be enough.

When the final pill was removed from the pill furnace and placed in a pill bottle, the Sect Master stood once more.

"Congratulations on completing the Inner Sect Challenge! Please wait while the elders discuss your results."

To me, it seemed clear that Wen Hao and the female disciple who had been able to control the water herb were going to be selected. Aside from them, only the two who had enhanced their pills with spirit fire stood out. Everyone else, excluding those who failed the third pill, seemed to make pills of roughly the same quality, so it would be hard to promote anyone from that group over the others.

The discussion between the three elders on the judging panel lasted far longer than I expected. It was only after what looked to be a rather heated disagreement that one of the elders stepped forward to announce the results.

"Deputy Sect Master Tan, we have reached our decision."

At this announcement, a few whispers broke out in the crowd. It was improper, and slightly disrespectful, for the elder to specifically call out Tan GaoFeng as the Deputy Sect Master. Normally, he should simply be referred to as Sect Master Tan.

"The elders have decided to promote Disciples Wen Hao, Mu QingFei, and Du RanHo. Congratulations to you all." After speaking, he turned away and walked out of the stadium.

Mu QingFei was the girl who used the water herb earlier, so it made sense that she was promoted.

Du RanHo, however, was one of the many people who only concocted normal pills. Neither of the two disciples who enhanced their pills with spirit fire were chosen for advancement.

This choice seemed strange. Even if his pills were the best of the normal pills, why him over the two who had done something special? This could be a result of the factionalism I had observed in the past. Three elders were acting as judges, and I had identified three factions.

The elder who announced the results seemed to be unhappy with Sect Master Tan. Could this be the reason? Was Du RanHo a member of the Sect Master's faction and opposed to this elder? I couldn't be sure, but it seemed likely. Still, selecting a single inner sect disciple shouldn't have been enough for him to breach public decorum. There had to be more going on beneath the surface.

Of course, it could also be that the elders in charge felt that the disciples who had enhanced their pills with spirit fires were simply lucky. They had taken a risk, and it paid off, but that didn't mean it had been the right thing to do. The elders might prefer disciples who follow the safe, traditional route to success.

Was this a plot between factions? Was this just the elders choosing who they felt was the best alchemist? I couldn't know.

The results of this competition reminded me of the need to learn more about the undercurrents that were swirling around me. I could ask Deacon Liu about why the elders made the decisions they made, but even a completely honest response would only tell me his opinion, not the reality of the situation. If I wanted to know more, I would need to become more involved in the world around me.

I watched as those who weren't chosen for advancement slowly filed out of the stadium. Their dejection was obvious from their slumped shoulders and the looks on their faces. Very few of those who failed would remain outer sect disciples. As Martial Grandmasters, they would be encouraged to transition to deacons of the nominal disciples. Some might persist and attempt this challenge again in three years, but with the way the sect operated, it was unlikely they would be any more successful on the second attempt.