The Undying Immortal System

After showing me around the important places in the Sect Master's enclave, Jiao then showed me my new residence.

"Here we are, what do you think?"

The house she had brought me to was in a secluded corner of the enclave with several other small homes. The place wasn't large, but it met my needs. It was clean, and it had well-made wooden floors. The walls were covered in a smooth chalk plaster, and several windows let in ample amounts of natural light.

There was only one problem. The home possessed no bed, chairs, or any other furnishings.

"It's good… but what about the furniture?"

Jiao snorted. "You have to buy it yourself, of course. You can't expect the sect to just give you everything, right?"

"I guess not, but…" I had to think about how to phrase my worries. "When I was given a place in Elder Mu's enclave, I was warned that anything I did, including adding furniture, might cause other disciples to challenge me for ownership of the place, and if I lost, I would lose everything I put in there. It made me unwilling to buy anything."

"Really? Were you given one of the top places to stay or something?"

"No, it was little more than a hole in the ground."

"Strange. Still, you don't have to worry about that here. Not with this place at least. There are luxury residences that you can challenge for if you want, and the living conditions there are a bit better, but that's more about status than anything else. This is just a basic home. You won't be challenged over it. Feel free to make it as lovely as you wish."

After a short discussion, Jiao left and allowed me to get settled.

While I needed to decide what kind of furniture to buy, and I needed to move my nice cultivation mat over from my place in the village, that was a job for the future. Instead, I needed to take stock of where I was and what I needed to accomplish.

I thought back to the list of goals I had made at the start of this life.

I had obtained a good Profound-Rank cultivation technique for both Ranks 1 and 2, but I still needed to get a copy of the matching Rank 3 technique. I had gotten the earlier volumes from Elder Mu. With him out of the picture, I wasn't sure if I could find a copy of the Rank 3 technique, but I needed to try.

I had learned to use my fire seed, and I could make Rank 2 pills exceptionally well. Now, I needed to move forward and learn Rank 3 alchemy.

I had learned a bit about the Wastes and the political pressures surrounding it, but it would be good to get more information on the topic.

As far as information about the fight at the Su clan, I had learned TianLei was a member of the Tigers and was thus from a rich, noble family. So, it was possible that the fight had nothing to do with the sect but was instead some kind of power grab by these noble families. That attack wouldn't occur for another 60 years, though, and getting any solid information about it beforehand would be difficult.

The only goal I had made absolutely no progress on was finding a spatial spirit fire seed. I needed to keep my eyes and ears open for one. I could consider purchasing the information about where to find one for the System, but I was going to be stuck in the sect for most of this life anyway. There was no reason to spend credits on this yet.

Did I need to add any goals?

I needed to clean out the faction's technique hall and visit the Martial Peak to pillage what I could from there. I regretted not being able to store Rank 3 techniques in my mental library, but the cost to do that before this life had just been too extravagant.

I also wanted to keep an eye open for any information I could get related to auctions of valuable goods, hidden treasures, or any other important discoveries. I needed to do some basic information gathering and uncover anything that might be of interest to me later.

This would be a bit of a hassle, but there was no reason I had to do it myself. I should be able to use my alchemy skills to hire people to collect the information for me. It shouldn't even be that hard. I was mainly interested in open, freely available news about the recent past. I just needed to gather anything that seemed important and sort through it for the bits I could use.

Learning Rank 3 alchemy would be a major time sink, so I didn't want to add too many goals, but one final item I decided to short-list was at least learning information about joining the Flowing Mountain Sect. I wouldn't put my hopes on moving up and claiming a city this life, but I did want to know the requirements so I could consider pursuing that path in the future.

I took out my mental journal and jotted down some notes.

Get the Rank 3 Profound technique

Learn Rank 3 alchemy

Get more information about the area

Learn about the Su Clan(?)

Look for information about a spatial fire seed

Pillage techniques (faction, fighters, more?)

Gather valuable intel

Learn more about the Flowing Mountain Sect selection

There was one more potential goal that I had to consider. Elder Tao had said that to become a Martial Lord, I would need to become a city lord and use the karmic energy the city generated to advance. While this might be possible to do through the Flowing Mountain Sect, I had to wonder if there was another way.

"System, is it possible to become a Martial Lord without first being a city lord?"

Cost of information is not possible to calculate at this time.

Maybe I could try approaching the question from a different direction?

"Is it possible to become a Martial Lord without using karmic energy?"

Cost of information is not possible to calculate at this time.

Neither a yes nor a no. Such a path might be possible, but it didn't seem to be one I could aspire to walk in this life, so I set such thoughts aside for the future.

Satisfied with my plans, I put away my journal and got busy with decorating my apartment.

The next day, Jiao arrived to begin my lessons on Rank 3 alchemy.

"Alright, so, Grandmaster Alchemy." She tapped her chin with one finger while thinking about how to explain. "Really, there isn't much to say about it. Let's just get some ingredients and get to work."

"Wait… what?"

"Yeah, you're already pretty good with Rank 2 pills. Rank 3 is just more of the same. Nothing much changes between Master and Grandmaster. Melt the physical shell. Burn away the toxin. Combine the energy. Compress it into a pill. Boom, you're done."

"Then, why did Elder Tao say I would need help to learn it? I should just be able to do it now, right?"

She gave me a sly grin. "Sure, as long as you're good enough. Go ahead."

Her response made me hesitate, but she didn't allow me to back down.

"Wait here a moment." Upon saying this, she ran off and disappeared somewhere. A few minutes later, she returned with a small jade box. "I got some herbs. Let's grab a cauldron and see what you've got."

We walked into one of the private work areas, and Jiao showed me what she had brought.

"These are for a Rank 3 Regeneration Pill. It's one of the easiest pills, so it's a good place to start. Basic sequence of metal, water, wood, and you're done."

I picked up the herbs and was about to get started immediately, but when I looked at them in qi sight, I was stunned.

"What the hell?"

A wide grin spread across Jiao's face. "That's what you have to expect from Rank 3 herbs."

The herbs she had given me were the nastiest things I had ever seen. Not in regular sight, though. In normal vision, they were perfectly normal plants, but in qi vision, they were living nightmares.

All the herbs I had seen before had a core of medicinal energy surrounded by a layer of toxins, and while burning these toxins away might be difficult, the process was rather straightforward. Working with Rank 1 herbs, I had learned that there were flecks of toxins mixed in with the medicinal energy, so it was nearly impossible for the average alchemist to completely cleanse an herb's energy, but that was just a matter of a few flecks here and there.

These herbs were more like demonic Rorschach tests. The toxins and medicinal energies twisted upon each other in random ways. There were globs of medicinal energy stuck in layers of toxins, but also some globs of toxins stuck in layers of medicinal energy.

There was no way to preserve all the medicinal energy in these herbs. Some of it had to be destroyed just to access the toxins it was protecting.

Jiao patted me on the shoulder. "Don't just stand there. Get to work."

I set my mind to the task and began.

The herbs she had given me had been mostly contaminated with metal-based toxins. Even the toxins in the metal herb she gave me seemed to be mainly metal-based. That seemed odd since from what I knew, the herb should have absorbed and incorporated that energy, but I didn't have the herbalism background needed to understand it.

The fact that it was all metal-based, though, made the toxins a lot easier to deal with. Fire melts metal, so my fire qi would be excellent here. Not only did it have an elemental advantage, but it had also just gotten an upgrade from my advancement to Grandmaster and was far easier for me to control than my spirit fire. I focused my qi and sent a strand to start the work of destroying the ball of toxin in front of me.

Nothing happened. My qi just bounced off the herb's toxins.

I increased the amount of qi I was using, and then doubled it, and then doubled it again. Finally, the toxins started to evaporate, but the drain on my qi reserves had become extremely noticeable. I would be able to complete the pill at this rate, but it would take nearly everything I had.

I continued slowly until finally the first area of medicinal energy was nearly exposed. However, I wasn't used to performing alchemy with this intensity of qi, and a small strand of my energy split off and hit the metal-based medicinal energy. In a flash, all the medicinal energy in that entire region vanished. While stepping up to Rank 3 herbs had meant the toxins I needed to deal with were significantly more robust, the medicinal energy of such herbs had become equally fragile.

At that point, the metal herb was little more than waste material, so I put it down.

Jiao reached into the box of herbs and took out another one. "Try the next one with your spirit fire."

My spirit fire was earth-based, and it was usually a poor idea to use earth against metal, but I followed her advice. At first, the spirit fire had no effect, but the more I opened the floodgates of my soul, the more powerful the fire became. Usually, earth would make metal stronger, but there was a breaking point where earth would overwhelm it.

Jiao smacked my shoulder. "What are you doing? Use your qi to control it properly."

I had never practiced using my fire seed like normal spirit fire users did. I had never needed to. Instead, I had developed my own ways of manipulating it that were impossible for people without a fire seed. This had worked well in Rank 2, but with the extreme amounts of energy it would take to concoct Rank 3 pills, it looked like I might need to learn some new skills.

Instead of just controlling the direction and intensity with my soul, I began trying to also use threads of qi to empower and direct the flames. This combined force of qi and spirit fire would have been complete overkill in Rank 2, and it likely would have ended up with any herbs I was working on instantly turning to ash, but for Rank 3 this was what was needed. With both qi and spirit fire combined, the flames cut through the toxins like butter.

My lack of control with this method was my undoing. While it cut through the toxins cleanly, the intense power the flames contained was able to completely vaporize the herb's medicinal energy whenever it even got close.

Jiao shook her head in mock sadness. "Let's put the third herb away for now. I think you've learned what you needed to."

I looked at the herbal remnants in front of me. "I've learned that I'm completely incapable of Rank 3 alchemy. How does that help me?"

"Because now it's time for you to go to the technique hall. There are a lot of helpful techniques in there that you need to learn to use. I watched you during the Inner Sect Challenge, and you didn't use any techniques when concocting your pills besides Empowerment. That's normal for someone at your level who has never needed them before, but now you do."

I thought about all the alchemy techniques I had copied down in my mental library. I had dozens of them, but I never even considered using them because I didn't see their value. Why use a technique to help me see or one to help me control the flow of qi? I could do everything I needed to do without them.

However, without any strong advantages to help me with Rank 3 alchemy, I would need to rely on those techniques to bridge the gap between what I was capable of and what I needed to be capable of. I hoped that I eventually wouldn't need to use any extra techniques since they added significant complications to the concoction process, but I already knew the truth. Eventually, I wouldn't need them for Rank 3, but things would only get tougher from there. Once I advanced to Rank 4, I would once again need those same techniques or better, so it would be best to get used to using them now.

"What do I need to do to access the enclave's Technique Hall? Rank 3 techniques must cost a significant amount of contribution points, right?"

"For anyone in the faction, it's free. You can access any alchemy techniques you want, but you may be limited if you want to look at other kinds of techniques since the higher-ups want you to focus on alchemy. The sect's Technique Hall has a wider selection of manuals available, and those will cost you a fair number of points, but you should hold off going there for now anyway. The enclave's library will have most of what you need, and you should only need to go to the sect to fill in a few small gaps."

I nodded and breathed out a puff of stale air. "Alright, I guess I should start studying."

Jiao stopped me before I could leave. "Just a recommendation… Go back and make some Rank 1 and 2 pills. Create a foundation with any techniques you want to learn with them before trying them on Rank 3 herbs. It will be easier with the reduced qi demand."

I bowed my head slightly. "That makes sense. That's what I'll do. Thanks."