The Undying Immortal System

Years slowly passed me by, and I spent my days steadily improving myself.

The greatest of these improvements was to my skill with alchemy. After two decades of practice, I had become far more adept at handling Rank 3 herbs, and the number of Rank 3 pills I concocted during this time reached into the thousands. While I couldn't always cleanse enough of the toxins for a pill to be rated as High-Purity, I could almost always create something. I was able to turn nearly any set of herbs into a pill that Jiao deemed good enough to be 'profitable.'

Part of the reason I wasn't able to make higher-quality pills was simply because of the ingredients I was given to work with. Jiao openly admitted that the best herbs were given to other disciples and that I was only given the dregs no one else wanted. I was happy with this arrangement, though. I didn't need easy profit-making opportunities. Such profits were meaningless to me. I just wanted as much practice as I could get.

While my alchemy skills grew steadily during this time, improving my cultivation base had been far more challenging. My ascension to Martial Grandmaster 2 had been extremely smooth, and I had hoped that had been a sign of things to come, but with each advancement, compressing my qi sufficiently to take the next step became more difficult.

The biggest factor in this increasing difficulty was the poor job I had done when constructing my dantian.

Ideally, to advance as a Grandmaster, I would have poured qi into my dantian until it was filled to capacity. Then, I would have forced even more qi inside, causing its density to slowly increase. Once the pressure caused by this excess energy became too much for my dantian to handle, I would then use my qi control to compress the energy until it locked into place, advancing me to the next stage of the Grandmaster realm.

However, my advancements didn't go so smoothly.

As soon as pressure began to build within my dantian, its walls started to buckle. At this point, to prevent my dantian from rupturing, I was forced to begin the compression process immediately. This limited the amount of qi that I could use during my advancement, and that in turn meant that I had to compress it into a far smaller ball than normal. The smaller the surface area of qi I had to push against, the harder it was to continue compressing it further.

These problems with my dantian were originally caused by small errors in the weaves of qi that I had used to create it. This created weak points that made its structure more prone to splitting than it should have been. At first, this was barely noticeable, but with each advancement, these small errors only grew and compounded upon themselves.

After each compression, my dantian required minor repairs in areas where it had suffered damage. Then, during subsequent advancements, while the areas I patched and fixed were able to hold without any problems, the process of patching those areas had weakened the structure of my dantian in the surrounding area and created even more weak spots.

All of this meant that I was becoming less than optimistic about my chances of ascending to Martial Grandmaster Peak in this life.

That was fine. Peak Grandmaster was a goal that I had been hoping to reach, but it wasn't essential. I had been able to reach Grandmaster 5. That was enough. When I died, the credits I gained would be more than sufficient to set me up for a far better run the next time around.

That being the case, I shifted my focus to other areas of study.

While I was working hard in my alchemy workshop one day, Jiao stopped by for one of her rare visits. She had been coming around far less frequently ever since I had reached the point where I could consistently make high-quality Rank 3 pills.

"Disciple Su, how have you been recently?"

I gave her a slight bow. "Very well, Elder Jiao. Thank you."

Jiao's promotion to elder had happened several years ago by this point, but she still maintained her position as my primary handler.

"Disciple Su, you will be turning sixty this year, and qi stagnation will soon begin to set in. Before this happens, you will need to undergo an evaluation for your promotion to elder."

I nodded. "Yes, elder. I know. When will it take place?"

"In two weeks. Be prepared at that time."

"Yes, elder."

I gave another small bow, and she began walking away, but I quickly spoke up to stop her.

"Elder, I plan to go to the Martial Peak to look through their technique libraries before my evaluation. I hope that this will be allowed."

She hesitated before answering. "You are still an inner sect disciple, so it is within the rules. Be careful, though. There's no true danger within the sect, but certain disciples may still threaten or attack you. If you meet anyone who tries to do so, just say that you are with the Defenders, and you will be safe."

"Thank you, elder."

I had gotten the permission I needed. In two weeks, I would undergo my examination for elder, and I was guaranteed to fail it. After that, I would almost certainly be named an outer sect deacon. While my alchemy skills might be sufficient to compete with nearly anyone in the sect, both my cultivation base and political clout were severely lacking.

I cared little about what title I was given, but outer sect deacons were not allowed to visit the Martial Peak, so if I wanted to go there, it needed to happen before I was removed from the inner sect.

Regardless of Jiao's reassurances, I needed to treat preparing to visit the Martial Peak as if I were preparing to die. I wasn't sure of the exact situation over there, but I had heard horror stories from others who had made the trip. So, I had spent the last several years finishing up everything that I felt I needed to get done before I died.

Aside from copying all the information I had gathered from both the sect and Bao into my mental library, the main preparations I made for my next life were tucked away in my storage space. I couldn't store much there, but I had the essentials. First was a small, thin copy of the Rank 3 dual-element wood and fire cultivation technique. This took up a significant amount of space, but it was my most valuable possession by far.

Other than that technique manual, I mainly stocked up on a few pills I considered important.

I didn't need to worry too much about cultivation resources, but I still stored a few Perfect Rank 1 Qi Gathering Pills and near-Perfect Rank 2 Meridian Builder Pills. I didn't bother with any Rank 3 cultivation pills, though. I couldn't make them at a high enough quality that I would want to take them.

Truthfully, I wasn't exactly excited at the idea of taking these Rank 2 pills either. I would prefer to only use Perfect pills, and I would hopefully be able to increase my affinities enough to make such pills before I next needed them, but I still went ahead and stored them just in case.

Another type of pill I stored a decent supply of was Qi Purification Pills. Unfortunately, the Profound-Rank technique I had gotten from Elder Mu had a problem with qi purity. I could fix that by going through the System, but that would eat up a lot of credits. I had ideas for ways to fix this problem without the System, but until then, I would have to use a combination of wood and fire Qi Purification Pills to keep me going strong.

The last jade bottle I placed into my storage space contained my ultimate escape plan: the most powerful Rank 3 poison pills I could concoct. This was an idea that had been running through my mind for a while, but it had taken me time to develop the finished product.

I used all my alchemy skills to make the deadliest, quickest-acting poison that I possibly could. Importantly, I also worked to make it as painless as possible. As soon as I placed one of these pills in my mouth, I would die and know no more. After perfecting the recipe for this pill, I then practiced taking pills from my storage space and having them appear directly in my mouth. This way, even if I was tied up and my body was searched for any hidden items, I could still instantly pop a pill, die, and escape back in time.

Finally, I filled what little room remained in my storage space with gold and silver coins. I had considered using this space for trade goods since a Rank 3 pill took up little space and would be immensely more valuable than a few gold coins, but selling a Rank 3 pill as a Martial Disciple would be extremely dangerous. It was much safer to use a bit of gold as starting capital and exploit my alchemy skills to make any money I needed.

Along with my preparations for death, I also prepared ways to prevent it. For years I had been studying a variety of martial techniques, but I had little faith in my ability to use them properly. If it came to a fight, I was confident that I would be able to hold out against most Martial Masters, but I was certain that any competent Grandmaster would be able to take me down without much difficulty.

So, instead of planning to fight such cultivators, I would just buy them off. I couldn't skim many Rank 3 pills off of what I made for the sect, but Bao was able to purchase several sets of herbs for me from the Blue Wind Pavilion at an exorbitant price. I used these herbs to generate cash, and then I used that cash to buy even more ingredients. After a few rounds of trading, I was left with enough pills that I was confident I could buy off nearly anyone on the Martial Peak.

Just in case, I also removed a stack of gold coins from my storage space and placed a bottle of explosive pills inside. I didn't want to carry them around openly since I was worried they might randomly blow up if I got into a fight, but held within my storage space, they would remain safe until they were needed. I didn't want to use them since I didn't think killing people would help my situation with the locals, but I took them with me just to be safe.

Getting permission from Elder Jiao to visit the Martial Peak had been the last step of my preparations. Now that I had her consent, I was ready to begin my journey.

The Martial Peak was divided into four large regions separated by high walls. They were the Upper Mountain, the Lower Mountain, the First Ring, and the Second Ring with each section housing the elders, inner sect disciples, outer sect disciples, and nominal disciples, respectively.

As an inner sect disciple of the Alchemy Peak, I was allowed to visit the Technique Hall in every region except for the Upper Mountain. The nominal disciple's Technique Hall held the least interest for me since I could guess that the sect wouldn't allow them to study anything but the weakest of skills, but I still wanted to copy down everything I could, so that was my first destination.

There was no direct path to the Martial Peak from the Alchemy Peak. To get there, I first had to walk back to the village of River Rock, located right outside the sect.

When I got there, I took a moment to stand in the square where the young hopefuls would gather each year to be tested for acceptance into the sect. The place was much as I remembered it, but the lack of young, boisterous cultivators gave the place an eerie silence. In front of me stood two paifang arches. Before, I had always walked through the one on the left. This time, I went right.

There was no sense of teleportation or disorientation as I passed through the arch. Those past perceptions had all been illusions. Instead, I walked a short straight path to a wide opening in the outermost wall of the Martial Peak. No guards were present there, and no one tried to stop me from entering. An illusion and shielding formation was the only barrier preventing access to the mountain, and my jade identity token allowed me to pass without hindrance.

On the other side of the gate was the blasted wasteland that was the Second Ring. A few weeds were scattered around on the ground, but in nearly every direction, the place was simply barren dirt that had been turned over and scorched by countless fights and explosions.

A path continued straight ahead of me, but that led to the First Ring which contained the outer sect, and I wasn't yet ready to go there. I needed to visit the Technique Hall of the nominal disciples.

Following directions that I had purchased long ago, I followed a different path in a counterclockwise direction around the mountain. As I walked, the ground around me gradually became rockier, and massive boulders that must have tumbled down from high atop the mountain in ages past dotted the landscape.

Not too far ahead of me, three men sat around on large rocks. They made no effort to conceal their presence. They were just sitting there, talking and laughing. As I neared, the three of them stood as one and walked in front of me to block my path.

The burly man at their center lifted a large club and rested it against his right shoulder.

"Alright, pay the toll."

All three of these men were tall and had bulging muscles. The sleeves of their robes had been cut off, and they were dirty, but it was obvious that they were all wearing the robes of nominal disciples.

I looked at them in qi vision and saw that the two on the sides were Martial Disciple 7s and the man in the center was a Martial Disciple 8. The idea of three Martial Disciples stopping a Grandmaster and asking for some kind of toll almost made me laugh.

"How much is it?"

The men's faces turned serious, and their leader scowled at me. "You look like a fancy one. How about you give us everything you got?"

These boys had clearly never seen an inner sect disciple's robes before and didn't know what they meant. This wasn't that surprising, but they should have at least been able to tell that something was wrong with my demeanor.

I waved a hand and responded with a light tone. "No, I don't think so. I just wanted to walk peacefully by, but if you want me to give you a free lesson, I will oblige."

As my Martial Grandmaster cultivation base grew, I had no longer needed to worry so much about the mental effects of my previous cultivation techniques. They had become like subdued circuits in my brain that I was able to access, but I wasn't compelled to use them. However, I still tended to keep the friendly circuits from my Rank 1 technique active as they helped me be cordial when dealing with people I didn't trust.

That said, a wise man adapts to different situations like water adapts itself to different vessels. In this situation, friendliness wasn't helping. I turned those circuits off and flipped on the aggression that was intrinsic to my Rank 2 technique.

The group's leader snarled at me. "Get him!"

His lackeys rushed me from either side. I could see that they were using some type of earth technique to enhance their movements and that the qi in their arms was concentrated to deal a devastating blow.

I didn't even bother defending myself.

They both rushed in and threw their punches. One was aimed at my head, the other at my torso.

I didn't dodge or defend. I let them connect.

I wasn't being cocky here, and I wasn't taking any pointless risks. I wanted to leave an impression on these boys to make the rest of my time here easier. By using my qi vision, I had already gained a solid understanding of my opponents' strengths, and I knew exactly what they were capable of.

Right before their blows landed, I channeled a small thread of qi into a basic shielding technique to protect my body from any damage from the physical power behind their punches.

Then, using my significantly higher affinities, qi control, and cultivation base, I wrested control of their qi from them, and the moment their fists made contact with my barrier, I channeled their energy into the ground.

When the punches from my two opponents landed, their entire bodies froze in place out of shock.

I looked at them and cocked my head to the side.

"Interesting. Let me try."

My qi exploded outwards and slammed into my opponents.

Since it was fire qi, it wanted to scorch and burn, but I used a technique to force this explosive energy to be purely kinetic.

The two men were blasted away and fell to the ground. They weren't hurt badly since I had limited my power output, but hopefully, they got the message that I wasn't someone to mess with.

I looked at their leader.

"Let's talk."