The Undying Immortal System [Book 2 Stubbing Oct 12] Chapter 63 – Life 60, Age 16, Martial Disciple 2

After dealing with Gougou, I focused inward and spent the next three months in near seclusion. While I did spend a bit of ti walking around the Pavilion and talking with i, SuYin, YuLin, and others, my focus was on cultivation.

My original plan had been to spend three or four months at each level, slowly comprehend the dual-elent technique, then advance. However, with every day that passed, I beca increasingly dissatisfied with this dual-elent technique. For all that it was labeled Mid-Profound, it was a piece of garbage. The purity of the qi this technique produced was terrible.

At my level of alchemy, I needed to be extrely precise when preparing ingredients, and the slightest burr in my qi could cause significant damage.

After perfectly cultivating a Peak-Yellow technique for so long, I was used to a nice, smooth, laminar flow of qi that I could use to delicately slide through small gaps in dicinal energy and precisely target tiny pockets of toxins. With this Mid-Profound technique, I was having to constantly take Purifying Pills to maintain just a bare semblance of pure qi. So, while I had concocted countless pills for the Pavilion, my constant expenditure on ingredients for Purifying Pills ant that I hadn’t actually made much money.

The second problem was also sothing that I had expected, but that expecting it didn’t make hate it any less. The total amount of qi that my body contained was roughly the sa as when I had cultivated a single-elent technique, but since I was now cultivating two different elents, my reserves of each individual qi type had been cut in half. When performing alchemy, I mostly relied on fire qi, so this led to needing to cultivate to restore my energy far more often than normal, which also ant drawing in additional impurities.

Still, only possessing half the fire qi that I considered normal was sothing that I could work with. The real issue was a quirk with the way this technique’s filter and whirlpool functioned. When I needed both fire and wood qi, I could cultivate at what I deed a normal rate, but if my wood qi was full, and I only needed fire qi, my cultivation speed plumted. It wasn’t just a matter of only pulling in half the total possible. No, instead, the wood qi would clog up the filter and only allow a trickle of fire qi to pass through.

While I was starting to experint with using my excess wood qi to bolster my fire qi, doing so in a controlled manner was extrely difficult. Until my skill level improved, I wouldn’t be able to use such combined qi in alchemy without needing to worry about destroying anything I was working on. Instead, I just had to dump my wood qi into the environnt, wasting it.

Overall, this cultivation technique was shockingly bad. Yes, it allowed to cultivate two types of qi, but the final effect was far worse than the Peak-Yellow technique I had been using. Before I could even think about pushing to Pill King, I would have to do sothing about this rotten technique.

The solution to the first problem was straightforward. I needed to upgrade the qi filter. I wasn’t sure how to do that yet, but I had plenty of references to work from.

The second problem was trickier. I either needed to find so way to increase my total qi reserves, or I needed to modify the technique so that I would be able to cultivate one type of qi at a ti. I didn’t know how to accomplish either of these goals, but I had a possible lead.

Aside from the dual-elent technique, I had acquired several other Profound-Rank techniques from the Twin Mountains Sect, and most of them possessed esoteric properties that could enhance a person’s qi. After studying every Profound-Rank technique in my library, I found the solution to all three of my problems.

I had three techniques that claid to improve a person’s ‘qi density.’ They were all slightly different, but they all seed to function on the sa basic principle. Open more acupoints, pull in qi from more places, and use the flow of qi coming from multiple directions to create a compressive force. This was difficult to do correctly, and the overall benefit that it provided was minor, so the techniques that did this were only considered Low-Profound, but I felt that the theory behind these techniques was extrely powerful.

By combining the information in each of these techniques, I identified dozens of additional acupoints around my body that I had never used before. This made wonder if there might be even more, but I could wait to study that later. I needed to take things one step at a ti.

After months of study, I was ready for an experint, but since said experint could result in my cultivation base being completely crippled, I needed to do one final thing to prepare.

“System, I would like to create a temporary reset point. The next ti I die, I want to return to this mont.”

Purchase confird. Cost 18,675 credits. 53,325 credits remaining.

This was potentially a waste of credits. The cost was significantly increased because of all the temporary affinity boosts that I had purchased, and if everything went smoothly, I wouldn’t even need this reset point. However, paying this fee ensured that everything I spent on my temporary upgrades wouldn’t simply be wasted if things went sideways, so I considered it worthwhile.

Now ready, I began cultivating in my lower left arm.

Instead of creating a single large qi whirlpool, I made a dozen smaller ones at each of the acupoints that I had identified. Then, instead of creating a single, complex qi filter to handle both elents, I copied the single-elent filters from a couple of Peak-Yellow techniques. Six acupoints received wood qi filters, and six received fire qi filters. After that, it was simply a matter of directing the qi from each acupoint to the right muscle groups.

As I cultivated, the qi drawn from these various acupoints began to interfere with each other, and I had to scale down the whirlpools to a third of their normal size to make this problem disappear.

I wasn’t too happy with this size limitation. The twelve whirlpools with a third of their normal diater only had slightly more surface area than a single larger one. While having slightly more surface area did an that I would draw in qi faster than normal, the ntal workload involved in maintaining a dozen whirlpools at once wasn’t worth this small benefit.

This, I realized, was likely a big reason why these techniques were only considered Low-Profound. A huge increase in complexity that resulted in only marginal improvents was a tradeoff few people would be willing to make.

While this was indeed a drawback, it was a manageable one. My fire and wood affinities were more than high enough to handle Rank 1 techniques, and after each advancent, my filters and whirlpools would lock in place, and I wouldn’t have to worry about them any longer. After reaching Peak Disciple, if I wanted to actively cultivate through nearly a hundred acupoints at once to restore my qi as quickly as possible, I might have a few problems. For normal, passive cultivation, however, I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

As I cultivated my left arm, I carefully studied the flow of energy inside it, using qi vision.

The filters were working as I’d hoped, and my body was absorbing one perfectly pure stream of fire qi and one perfectly pure stream of wood qi.

After a few minutes of this, I experinted with cutting off the wood qi whirlpools so that my body was only absorbing fire qi. When I did this, the speed at which I was cultivating fire qi actually increased. Without the interference caused by the wood qi vortices, the fire ones were more efficient.

When I shifted my focus to studying the effects that this had on the rest of my body, I was shocked by the changes.

While I had only cultivated my arms, this caused qi to flow throughout the rest of my body as well. Normally, this flow would be a small, clean stream. Now, it was a swampy morass.

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I had co to associate this flow of qi with the ntal effects that a cultivation technique would produce. The cleaner and smoother the flow, the more directed but less severe a person’s ntal effects would be. The dirtier the flow, the less control a person would have over their actions. One of the big reasons that people who rushed their cultivation had problems was that these flows beca unstable.

I had no idea what kind of ntal effect this technique that I had created would have, but from what I was seeing, it seed to be in direct conflict with the one I had purchased from the System.

So, I stopped cultivating and expelled all the qi from my left arm. After a solid day, the energy flows in my body slowly returned to normal.

Then, I began a laborious process of refining my new cultivation technique. I had to individually tweak the size, angle, and speed of each separate whirlpool. While doing this, I cultivated as slowly as possible, but even then, after less than an hour of work, my body’s qi flows would be completely disordered, and I would have to stop for the day.

In this manner, I spent an entire year perfecting the cultivation in my left arm.

When I was finally satisfied with my creation, I locked it into place and broke through to Martial Disciple 3. After that, I purged all the impurities in my right arm and dispersed my qi to cripple my cultivation base. Then, using a mirror image of what I had done in my left arm, I implented the sa cultivation technique in my right, returning to Martial Disciple 3 once again.

At that mont, an alarm sounded in my mind.

System Alert: A novel cultivation technique has been created. Please na your technique.

I hadn’t been prepared for this, so I had to co up with a na on the spot. I did my best to combine the effects with wood and fire, but well…

“The Focused Hearth Fire Mantra.”

The Focused Hearth Fire Mantra. Rating beyond Peak-Profound Rank 1 Wood-Fire Cultivation Technique. Would you like to submit this technique to the Dao?

What was happening? I had no idea.

“Uh… Yes.”

Submission Successful. Contribution Confird. Calculating… Reward: 50% discount for the next purchase below 20,000 credits.

Note: Profound Rank 1 techniques will no longer qualify you for further discounts.

That was… surprising. It wasn’t much, but it was essentially ten thousand free credits, and it was the first ti that I had found a way to earn credits besides dying. Would creating a technique at a higher Rank produce an exponentially greater discount? I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out.

As I was thinking about potential credit gains, my mind suddenly felt like it had been struck by lightning.

Information poured into .

Various ideas and abstractions about the technique that I had created appeared in my mind, and I gained new insights on how to position the filters and whirlpools at each acupoint. Not only did I learn how to further refine their alignnt, but I also gained an understanding of why they needed to be aligned in such a manner. While I had only reached Martial Disciple 3 with this technique, these insights extended all the way to Peak Disciple.

Clearly, my reward for creating a new technique was far more than just a few credits. I might have been able to deduce all this sa information myself, but what would have taken years was provided to by the Dao in only an instant.

Once this process of enlightennt was complete, I reviewed my previous efforts.

The acupoints in my arms that I had been so proud of only monts ago now looked atrocious. So, I dispersed the entirety of my cultivation base and began again from scratch.

I finally ended my seclusion a year and a half after it had begun. I was a Martial Disciple 3, only one step higher than I had been when my seclusion had started.

Still, my gains had been worth it. While my cultivation base hadn’t advanced much, my understanding of cultivation techniques had improved by leaps and bounds. From here, I planned to advance by one step every other month. While I was confident in my new technique, I wanted to slowly adapt to it and better understand how it might affect . The source of this content ɪs novel⦿fire

After leaving my apartnt, I walked through the Pavilion in high spirits. With the gains I had made, I had beco far more confident about the future of this life.

With nowhere I needed to go and nothing I needed to do, I wandered to the balcony on the second floor and found a spot where I could sit and watch the people on the shop floor below. Sothing about watching the normal people just going about their daily lives felt… comforting.

After sitting there for an unknown amount of ti, I stood and ambled my way toward the Pavilion’s commissary, where employees could grab a al during their breaks. Halfway there, however, a sowhat haggard WuJing ran up to .

“Fang!” Initially, WuJing looked relieved, but that didn’t last long, “Martial Disciple 3? You’ve only advanced to Disciple 3 in over a year!?”

“Hello, WuJing.” My voice was steady as I dipped my head toward him. “Yes, however, I have completed what I needed to complete. I’m ready to begin advancing further and faster.”

WuJing shook his head, crestfallen. “It may be too late for that. We just received an urgent request from the Su Clan. Their Patriarch has placed an order for several different types of pills, and it’s unlikely that we will be able to complete his request without ordering them from another branch. This is normal, and it shouldn’t be a problem, but one of the deputy managers is claiming that, if Master Zhong were still here, then we could have fulfilled the order imdiately. He’s stirring up trouble.”

“Could Zhong have completed the order?”

“By himself, no, but he could pull in connections to do it. He wouldn’t have, but since he isn’t here, so people are saying that he could have.”

“I see. What pills are needed, and what is the tifra?”

WuJing handed a sheet of paper.

None of the pills were higher than Rank 2, but the purity and efficacy requirents were intense. Also, there were several pills that I hadn’t seen before that required various rare ingredients, aning they were potential money pits.

WuJing shook his head, defeated. “He wants them by the end of the week. We have two Master Alchemists in the city, but they can’t make pills of this quality, so we either have to order them from outside the Wastes or try to source them from the Twin Mountains Sect. Neither option is good. Going outside ans huge expenses, and going to the sect devalues the Pavilion. Again, either would be normal in this situation—”

“But people are causing trouble,” I said, cutting him off. “I got it. Send the ingredients, and I’ll get started right away. End of the week is a tight tiline, but I’ll do my best.”

WuJing's eyes widened. “Are you serious? You’re only a Disciple…”

“Deadly.” I smiled wolfishly. “Just get the ingredients, and I’ll make sure you have your pills. Though, it would be best if you included a substantial number of herbs for Rank 1 Qi Recovery Pills as well. I’ll probably need them to et this deadline.”

The list that WuJing provided contained a combination of Rank 1 and 2 pills. Both the quantity and the quality of the pills requested were substantial.

I began by knocking out all the low-hanging fruit. Almost all the Rank 1 pills were easy enough to produce. For the herbs that contained wood, water, or tal energy, I quickly and efficiently burned out the toxins and ford the pills. All were Perfect and had around 102% of standard efficacy. There weren’t many pills that required earth or fire herbs, but for those that did, I used my fire and wood qi to boost their efficacy to at least 121%.

The only Rank 1 pill that tripped up required an extrely rare herb that contained a type of energy I hadn’t seen before. Comparing it to my mories from the attack on the Twin Mountain Sect, I realized it must be lightning energy. I didn’t have any lightning affinity, so I couldn’t improve or perfect the pill, but I was still able to concoct it as a High-Purity pill with 99% efficacy.

Staring at this completed pill, I tapped my fingers together. “I’m going to have to move beyond the basic elents. I don’t have to do it right away, and it would probably be expensive, but it needs to get done.”

Once I was finished with all the Rank 1 pills, I moved on to the Rank 2 ones. These would be significantly more challenging with my low qi levels, but with my fire seed mastery, I knew it would be possible.

This ti, instead of focusing on the type of dicinal energy the herbs contained, I paid more attention to the prevailing energy in their toxins. Targeting the herbs with mostly water toxins first, I got to work.

With peak seven-star earth and water affinities, the Cold Mountain Fire was a joy to work with. I didn’t have to use any qi at all. I just opened my soul, and it poured out exactly when and where I wanted it. My qi vision had advanced enough to see through Rank 2 herbs, and with my higher affinities, I gently opened up the dicinal energy of each herb to swiftly eradicate all traces of toxins.

Where I could, I used my qi to enhance the pills, but I couldn’t inject enough energy into any of them to push them past 105% efficacy. Instead, I was much more successful using the energy from the spirit fire to boost pills.

The Cold Mountain Fire was about 90% earth energy, with the rest being water energy. I used my affinities to separate these two energies. Then, I sent the earth energy to enhance the tal herbs and the water energy to enhance the wood herbs. Where I used earth, the pills were raised to around 115% efficacy, and where I used water, they were raised to around 104%. The water boost wasn’t amazing, but it was far better than nothing.

With this new experience, I wanted to go back and redo the Rank 1 pills, but unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.

Where the Cold Mountain Fire was less effective, such as tal toxins, I had to use copious amounts of qi, and I burned through several Qi Recovery Pills to get everything done in ti, but by the end of the week, the order was complete.

While this order had stated minimums, there was no maximum acceptable quality, so the Su Clan had implicitly agreed to buy whatever pills were produced with the ingredients that were provided. Even if the price was a little higher than expected, normally, anyone would be overjoyed to receive such high-quality pills. In this case, however, I could only hope that WuJing would take advantage of the situation and milk the Su Clan for as much as he could.