The Undying Immortal System [Book 2 Stubbing Oct 12] Chapter 288 – Life 76, Age 16, Martial Disciple 2

Most of my ti over the next couple of weeks was spent studying cultivation techniques, but I set aside a few hours each day to observe the situation in my inner world.

At several points, I considered removing the seed of the Solid Mountain Fire from my soul and replacing it with sothing else. As a Martial Disciple, this would have been dangerous, but as long as I first drained the seed of energy, it might have been possible.

I needed to use the Expanding Realms Fire to start growing the world again, but removing the Solid Mountain Fire would an removing the world’s primary source of qi. Then, as the world grew and as people cultivated and locked qi away in their bodies, the world’s qi density would gradually decline, eventually making it impossible for anyone to cultivate.

Still, I couldn’t help but feel that growing the world was more important than maintaining its qi density. So, with these thoughts in mind, I resolved to swap out the fire seed. However, that was when a new problem beca apparent.

While all of our earth cultivators were able to pull in energy and store it in their bodies, Masters were unable to form ridians, and Grandmasters were unable to compress their qi. While it seed that every earth cultivator was able to use and replenish their energy, the only people who were actually able to advance were the Disciples.

I only knew of one possible explanation for this. The world’s Laws of Earth weren’t complete enough.

After realizing this, I decided to leave the Solid Mountain Fire in place so that the world could continue to absorb its Laws. During this ti, my world wouldn’t be able to continue growing, but this should be fine. I just needed to make sure that I completed its expansion before it was ready for its next ascension. As long as the world didn’t absorb any Laws from other elents, I shouldn’t need to worry about that.

By the end of my first month in the clan, I had collected three more random Disciples. Their combat instructor was far from happy with , but my display of martial prowess had stabilized my position, so there wasn’t much that he could do to .

As I was sitting in my cultivation room, reviewing a variety of both single- and dual-elent Profound-Rank techniques, a series of three soft knocks broke out of my concentration.

“Enter.”

The door opened to show a young woman who was wearing the brown robes of a servant.

“Yes?”

She bowed to . “Young Master, it is ti for the martial arts competition. Please, follow .”

Her voice trembled as she spoke, and it was clear that she was afraid. Was it fear that I would refuse, or was it fear of what other ‘young masters’ might do to her?

Keeping my thoughts to myself, I simply stood and waved her back out the door. “Lead the way.”

This straightforward response made her widen her eyes, and I felt a surge of panic in her, but she did her best to calmly turn and lead out of the house.

As the young woman guided through the maze of the complex’s towering red walls, I looked around at my surroundings and was sowhat confused. The only people I saw were servants. Where were the other elites? Shouldn’t they be headed to the competition as well?

My guide started trembling in fear, but I wasn’t sure why. Was she leading into a trap? That didn’t seem likely. Everyone was currently treating as the Patriarch’s true grandson. So of the other clan’s scions might not be happy about this, but would they be willing to make a move against so openly?

When we entered the courtyard where the competition was to be held, the arena, balcony, and platform—with its ten chairs for the elites—were all in place. Everything was ready, but the only person present was a familiar old man who was using a bamboo broom to push around a pile of dirt.

I turned to my guide with a raised eyebrow.

She blushed, bowed deeply, and stamred out a response. “The… The competition won’t start until noon. We were sent out early to retrieve everyone. Eunuch Pang thought it would take at least an hour before anyone would be willing to leave with us, and he wanted to ensure that you arrived on ti.”

After saying this, she didn’t rise from her bow. She stayed bent over with her head facing downward as a few teardrops leaked out and dropped to the ground. Standing there, neck extended, she looked like she was awaiting execution.

Was this place really so hard on the servants? My focus had always only ever been on the young cultivators. I had never seen the servants as anything more than spies for the elders. But… if the Su Clan didn’t have any compunctions about killing their own children, then how would they treat mortal servants who weren’t even related to them?

However, for the mont, the best I could do was pretend not to notice. Anything else would only cause more trouble for the girl.

“I see. Thank him for .”

If this Eunuch Pang had a good read on the typical ‘elite disciple,’ then sending the servants to bring us here early might have been the right call. I wouldn’t fault a man for doing his job the best way he knew how. But I just couldn’t help but feel that this girl had been put in an untenable position. No matter what she did, bringing early or late, she risked punishnt.

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I turned to the platform. “Where am I supposed to sit?”

“Yes— Yes, of course. Right this way.”

The girl let out a soft, whimpering sigh, and slowly straightened. Then, she guided to the chair that was reserved for the second-ranked elite.

After I took my seat, she gave another deep bow. “Young Master, once the competition is over, I will return to guide you back.”

I waved her off. “No need. I can find my own way ho.”

“But—”

I shook my head. “If you are required to serve as my guide, if leaving to return on my own will cause trouble for you, then I will accept your assistance. If not, you may take your leave.”

“Yes, Young Master. I wish you well in the competition.”

With a final bow, she departed.

I let out a deep breath. That was another thing. I wasn’t a fan of all the bowing. I had acted similarly in the past, and I didn’t mind giving soone a few bows if it helped smooth over a tense situation, but having a servant repeatedly bowing to like this just made uncomfortable. Once I took control of things, I would need to look at implenting a few changes.

However, that was for later, so I put these matters out of my mind and looked around the arena once more.

There was nothing much to see. It held the sa combat stage, the sa platform, and the sa balcony that it always had. A quick check with energy vision showed nothing of interest—except for the sweeper, of course.

For a clan that was using a Martial Master 1 with a horrible foundation to teach its Disciples martial arts—and for a clan that could only provide a Martial Grandmaster 7 to oversee this entire training complex—it was a bit strange to see a Peak Grandmaster sweeping the floors. Worse, he wasn’t even doing a good job of it. He would just wave his broom around a couple of tis, glance at out of the corner of his eye, and then take a step forward and repeat.

As I sat in my chair and waited for the competition to begin, I thought through how I should deal with this old man. What was the right way to handle this?

After a few minutes, I finally got fed up. I stood from my seat, let out a long, exasperated sigh, and walked over to where the old sweeper was pretending to be hard at work.

As I approached, he planted his broom in front of himself and rested a good portion of his weight onto it. I couldn’t help but wince at the sight.

The mont I reached him, I held out a hand. “Give the broom.”

He only furrowed his brow at in confusion, so I just reached out and took it from him. Then, I moved to the edge of the arena’s courtyard and started sweeping.

“This is an enclosed space. You can’t just brush dirt to the side. You need to gather it together so that you can pick it up and take it elsewhere.”

The courtyard was rather dirty, and it made wonder if this elder had kicked out the regular cleaning crew so he could have his fun.

“As you sweep, don’t swing your arms about so much. Use the motion of your entire body to move the broom. Then, overlap the strokes so that nothing is left behind.” I glanced at the elder out of the corner of my eye. “And do not sweep dirt directly back onto an area you just cleaned.”

I continued sweeping for another minute or two and gathered up a decently large pile of dirt and debris. Then, I turned back to the elder. “You didn’t even bring a dustpan. What were you planning to do with this dirt once it was collected?”

He seed to want to speak, but I didn’t let him.

I tapped into my earth affinity and infused the pile of dirt with my qi to form it into a solid brick. This was much harder with tal qi than it would have been with earth qi, but bonding a few specks of dirt together well enough that it could be disposed of wasn’t a problem.

Once I was finished, I picked up the brick and handed both it and the broom back to the elder.

He accepted them wordlessly.

“It’s a bit more work if you have to use your qi like that, but you should have more than enough to get the job done. And, honestly, I don’t see a way for you to get this place clean before noon if you don’t.”

After saying this, I turned and started walking away. However, after taking only a couple of steps, I stopped and let out a sigh. “You know, I really wasn’t expecting to see you here so soon, Grand Elder TaiZu.”

I felt the Grand Elder’s qi flare up behind , so I turned around to look at him. Follow current novᴇls on novel fire

He was glaring at . “You knew who I was, yet you still spoke to in such a way?”

I gave a weary sigh and shook my head. “Yes, Grand Elder. Yes, I did.”

Then, I reached into my inner world, pulled out a mory orb, and looked down at it for several seconds. Finally, I looked up and stared directly into TaiZu’s eyes. “Elder TaiZu, we both know that I am no kin of YuanKong, but I’m sure that you’ve investigated . I may be an orphan from a branch family, but I am still a full-blooded mber of the Su Clan, am I not?”

The elder narrowed his eyes at . “From what we have been able to discover, yes. However, the fact that you were able to recognize suggests that we might have made certain…. errors.”

I snorted derisively. “Fine, but answer one question. How would you feel if you found out that a distant mber of a branch family decided to take over the Su Clan? Be honest.”

The elder let out a slight growl and released a strand of qi in my direction. The power it contained wouldn’t be enough to cripple , but if I allowed it to strike , I certainly wouldn’t be in any condition to compete against the Su Clan’s elites.

With a ntal tug, I pulled on my soul and erected a barrier.

When the elder’s attack hit this barrier, it rebounded with twice the force and flew right back at him. Seeing this, TaiZu’s eyes widened in shock, and he quickly mustered his control to disperse his qi.

If his original strike had been more powerful, dispersing it wouldn’t have been possible, but since it had only been strong enough to teach a Martial Disciple a lesson in respect, the elder was able to control it without an issue.

I gave him a pleasant smile. “Grand Elder, please, be civil. Just answer my question. If a powerful enough mber of a branch family appeared, a full-blood mber of the clan, would you have any objections to him becoming the clan’s new Patriarch?”

TaiZu gritted his teeth. “I will always do what is best for the clan.”

I rubbed my chin and nodded in thought. Then, I tossed him his mory orb. “Inject your qi into that.”

Instinctively, TaiZu reached out and caught the orb, dropping both the broom and the dirt brick in the process.

Holding the orb in his left hand, he stared at it, but he didn’t imdiately follow my instructions. Instead, I saw his right hand twitch, suggesting that he wanted to smash the orb to bits just to spite .

mory orbs might be Rank 6 artifacts, but they were as fragile as any mundane jade. If he wanted to destroy it, he would be able to do so easily, but I didn’t care either way. If that happened, then so be it.

He looked up at . “Why?”

“You will know once it is done.”

I hadn’t given him any reason to trust , and no sane person would simply comply with my orders. However, for whatever reason, after glaring at for a bit, the elder pulled on his qi and injected it into the orb. Once the mory transfer was complete, TaiZu lifted his head and stared off into space.

I walked forward and plucked the mory orb from his unresisting hands. Then, I turned and walked back to my seat, where I closed my eyes to ditate as I waited for the competition to begin.

TaiZu didn’t say anything. After staring at the sky for several minutes, he glanced down at his broom and the dirt brick. Then, he silently walked away, leaving them behind.