The Undying Immortal System

The bandits' leader screamed as he ran at me.

He activated some type of earth qi technique, but I didn't stand around and wait for it to hit me. I used a Master-level movement technique to blink forward right in front of him. Then, I simply tapped his fist, and his gathered qi dispersed. With him now defenseless, I slapped him hard enough to make him fly to the side and fall to the ground. As I did this, I added in a small bit of energy to stabilize his body so that his neck didn't just snap.

The facts were simple. A Martial Disciple cannot fight a Grandmaster. The innate defenses one gains by ascending to Grandmaster and compressing their qi make it impossible for a low-level cultivator to do any real damage. Even if I hadn't defended myself at all, these Disciples wouldn't have been able to hurt me.

I walked to where the leader was lying on the ground. He was big and burly, but he couldn't have been older than eighteen or nineteen years old. I did my best to loom over him.

"Are you ready to talk now?"

He growled at me. "You better pay the toll and compensate us for our injuries! You don't know what you've done. We are Boss Hong's men. If you even think about touching us, Boss Hong will make you regret it."

"And who is Boss Hong?"

"Hah! What are you, a bumpkin? Boss Hong is the master of this territory. He is a Martial Disciple 9! You might be able to defeat me, but you're nothing compared to him. Kowtow and admit your mistakes. If you do, I'll make sure Boss Hong leaves you with an intact corpse."

The boy's face showed a level of confidence that I just couldn't understand. He was lying in the dirt, covered in wounds, and he was still threatening me.

I wanted to use these kids to show me exactly where to find the Technique Hall and other hidden caches of knowledge, but since Boss Hong was their leader, he should have more information than they did.

I gave the leader a toothy smile. "Alright, take me to see Boss Hong. I will apologize to him personally."

The kid just laughed at me. "You think you are worthy of seeing the Boss?"

I stepped on his right arm, shattering it. "Take me to see Boss Hong. I need to apologize to him for breaking both of your arms."

"Idiot, only one of my arms is broken!"

I sighed. Was this the cultivation technique they gave the nominal disciples here? It had similarities to the Earth Heart Mantra, but it also seemed to give them a strong belief in their leader, not just themselves. These guys were destined to be nothing more than foot soldiers for the rest of their lives, and they didn't even realize it.

Knowing I had to play out the rest of the scene, I stepped on his other arm.

"Now, take me to Boss Hong so I can apologize for your arms and for miscounting earlier."

He began trying to scurry away. "You'll… You'll regret this!"

I picked him up by the nape of his neck and set him on his feet. "Move! Take me to Boss Hong."

I followed the three men through the wasteland until we arrived at a small village of broken buildings. There were only half a dozen structures here, and they all showed signs of battle damage. Every wall had at least half a dozen holes that had been patched up with broken boards, and the formally tiled roofs had all been covered over with waxed canvas.

The sight was far worse than I had expected. "This is Boss Hong's place?"

The leader smirked at me. "Yeah, just you wait."

He led me to the center of the small settlement and began shouting. "Boss Hong, someone's here looking for trouble! We need your help to put him down!"

I almost laughed, almost, but the aggression circuits in my mind kept me from doing so. I wanted to slap the fool back to the ground, but I decided to wait for the main character in this charade before making a move.

A young man walked out of the building at the center of this decrepit village. It was still little more than a shack, and the door had been broken off at some point, but it was still the most impressive structure here.

"Oh? Let's see who dares to cause trouble in my territory."

I looked at 'Boss Hong.' He was maybe seventeen years old and had long hair tied up in a tight queue. He was wearing the pristine nominal disciple robes, and looking at him in qi vision, I saw that he was a Martial Disciple 9 with a perfect foundation.

The moment the man saw me, his eyes widened in shock.

Enraged, he ran forward and slapped the trio's leader to the ground.

"How dare you!"

I mentally flipped off my aggression and reengaged the friendliness circuits.

Boss Hong gave me a deep bow. "Lord Disciple, please forgive me for the impertinence of these fools. I assure you, they will be punished for their actions."

I waved a hand dismissively. "No need. They brought me here to talk with you, and that's all that matters."

Boss Hong hesitated a bit but mustered his courage to speak. "Lord Disciple, I must punish them. If I do not, it will only cause more problems in the future."

"Handle your affairs as you see fit. They don't need to be punished on my account, but your family business is none of my concern."

"Thank you, Lord Disciple."

Boss Hong looked in the direction of a couple of houses where high-level Disciples were hidden from view. "Take them away!"

Three men walked out and hauled the trio somewhere else. Their fate was no longer any of my concern.

Boss Hong dipped his head toward me. "Lord Disciple, how may this one be of service?"

I smiled. "Let's find a place to sit down and talk."

Boss Hong led me into a small sitting room in one of the dilapidated houses. There wasn't much inside, and the walls and floors showed signs of wear and damage, but it held two chairs and a small table. After we were seated, one of Boss Hong's men brought in a pot of tea and served us while two more stayed stationed near the door. The idea of sharing tea in this situation almost made me laugh.

"Boss Hong, as you may be able to tell, I am from the Alchemy Peak, and I'm new here."

Boss Hong's eyes widened a bit, and he began sizing me up. Was he going to try to attack me now that I revealed I wasn't a fighter?

I looked at him. "I had planned to travel alone, but your men decided to show me around."

Boss Hong winced at the mention of his men attacking a Grandmaster.

"After a bit of thought, I realized that it might be nice to have a guide who can show me around the place. I am looking to visit your Technique Hall, and I would be interested in gathering any other information you would be kind enough to share with me."

Boss Hong nodded frantically. "I can help with that. I'll send my men to gather anything you want."

"I'll let you decide what's important. My main focus is on technique manuals, but any extra information is appreciated."

Boss Hong glanced at someone who had been standing just outside. After a nod, the man disappeared.

"It will take him some time to prepare."

"Of course."

I leaned back in my chair and started sipping my tea.

Boss Hong was intelligent, and it didn't seem like I would have any problems working with him, but I knew that a clear exchange of benefits was expected. If he didn't see any return for his kindness, there might be problems later. Not with Boss Hong directly, of course. I doubted he could do anything to me even if he wanted to, but if he had strong connections with a deacon, things could become problematic.

As we sat, I decided to probe for more information about the Martial Peak.

"Boss Hong, why did your boys attack me earlier?"

"They didn't—"

I waved a hand, cutting him off. "I just want to understand the situation here. Why were they sitting by the road? Why were they stopping travelers?"

"They… They need to earn contribution points, the same as everyone. At our level, there are only two ways to do that. The first is to take a mission and leave the sect to collect resources such as wood or bricks, simple things like that, and then bring them back to the sect."

I nodded. They couldn't concoct pills, so this was the way they contributed.

"The other way to get points is through robbery. When a group is returning resources, we can rob them, taking either resources or contribution points from them. Though, we usually just impose a toll. That helps ensure Disciples continue passing through our territory. If we took everything from them, they would either find new paths or stop taking missions altogether."

"But I wasn't delivering anything. That should have been obvious."

He shook his head and snorted in disgust. "They thought you were an outer sect disciple. Gangs in the outer sect send their weaklings to collect things from our Mission Halls. They have to pay a toll, or we beat them up. Their gang leaders could stop us if they wanted to, but they just blame their newbies for being too weak."

"Your boys can take down a Martial Master? They didn't seem that strong."

"Not a powerful one, no. Only the ones who get sent on messenger runs."

So, were the messenger runs some type of hazing ritual? Perhaps a way to punish the new guys by proxy?

"What kind of toll do they pay?"

"A pill. We get one Qi Gathering Pill a week, but that isn't enough for most people. If we capture an outer sect disciple's identity jade, we can turn it in for another one. Instead of losing their token, most people would rather just hand over a pill directly."

It was all about cultivation resources in the end. That was something I could deal with.

"Do you have one of these pills? Let me see it."

Without hesitation, Boss Hong went to a side room, retrieved a pill bottle, and handed it to me.

I took out the pills and examined them.

"Mid-Purity Basic Qi Gathering pill? This is what they give you?"

"Yes."

I looked at Boss Hong in qi vision once more. His foundation was nearly perfect.

"You've never taken one of these pills yourself, have you?"

"No… I haven't… How did you know?"

"Your qi is too pure. These pills will mess you up quickly. They aren't too effective at your level, and with the toxins they contain, they will do you more harm than good. If your boys have been taking these, that's the reason their growth has slowed down so much."

Boss Hong gave me a solemn nod. "I understand."

I placed two pill bottles on the table in front of us.

"Here is my offer. First, five Perfect Superior Qi Gathering pills. Just one will be enough for you to reach Peak Disciple, and it won't introduce any toxins into your system. The rest can be spread around to your subordinates. Second, three High-Purity Meridian Builder pills. These will be of great help to you as a Martial Master."

Boss Hong stared at my pills with greed in his eyes. However, he had enough control to not simply try and grab them.

"What do you need?"

"As I said before, information. Anything that might be valuable. Tell me about any notable events, or about important people, or interesting discoveries. I don't need to know any secrets you don't want to share, but the more you can tell me the better. Even if the information is decades old, it can still be of use to me."

"Yes, yes, I can do that. Some guys have been here a long time. They should know a lot of what you want."

I nodded at that. "Also, techniques. You and your boys are using different cultivation techniques. That is clear enough. If they are available in the Technique Hall, I can grab them from there, but if not, I would like access to the manual you are using."

"They're using the standard sect cultivation technique…" Boss Hong paused briefly before continuing. "That one is available in the hall, but mine isn't. I won it in a competition. They keep a copy in the outer sect library, but you won't find it anywhere out here in the Second Ring. I only had a few weeks to study it, and I wasn't allowed to keep a copy."

I waved this away. "No worries then. I can get it later. While your men get to work gathering and writing down information, why don't you take me to the Technique Hall?"