The Undying Immortal System Chapter 260: Life 73, Age 49, Martial Disciple 4

As a low-level Martial Disciple, I was nearly entirely blind to everything that was happening on the mountain. Before doing anything else, I needed to fix that, and that ant advancing.

After my previous experience, I was hesitant to continue cultivating the Writ of Wood-Burned Earth. The process was far too painful. However, I needed access to the types of qi it would grant , and I needed to expand my knowledge of and experience with such high-level techniques.

So, setting my jaw in determination, I got to work.

As I did so, I considered using so form of alchemical poison to dull the pain of advancing. With the herbs that I had stashed away in my storage space, there had to be sothing that I could concoct to block the sensation of burning myself alive. However, doing this would make properly cultivating the technique significantly more challenging since, if my body were numb, it would be much more difficult to sense my qi and acupoints. So, in the end, I decided to push through on my own.

Advancing to Martial Disciple 5 by cultivating fire qi in my upper left arm was a simple matter and caused no issues. In contrast, when I cultivated wood qi in my lower left arm to advance to Martial Disciple 6, I was left moaning on the floor in agony. This ti, there wasn’t even a rush of earth qi to stabilize afterward.

Continuing to push forward in this state wasn’t an option, but I didn’t need to.

By combining the wood qi from my lower arms, I would have enough energy to connect to a few of the smaller roots that I had previously spread throughout the mountain and listen in on what was happening out there. This connection wouldn’t last long, but it would be enough to help better understand where things stood.

So, after taking a Shadowed Soul Pill, I climbed all the way to the top of the mountain and walked out onto the plateau. From there, I walked over to my house, used my real identity token to connect to the sect-protecting formation, and gained access to the secret underground cultivation chamber that sat at the center of my root network.

I spent the next few hours pinging important places around the sect, using my limited qi to quickly check for any noteworthy gatherings of important individuals. When I finally found what I was looking for, I was happy to see that it was in the house right above . I would be able to monitor the situation with only a modest expenditure of qi.

YuanFei had gathered his loyal Grandmasters for a casual eting in the audience hall on the ground floor of my house. As he lounged on an ugly stone throne, his subordinates reported on the status of various forces throughout the mountain. While many people had been initially opposed to any change in the clan’s leadership, once they learned that I had stepped aside willingly, YuanFei’s followers were able to convince them to cooperate.

Just as one of these reports was finishing up, the doors of the audience hall slamd open and TaiZu stord inside.

“Did you steal Prince Fang’s storage bag?”

YuanFei smiled at the older man. “Of course not. I had reason to suspect that Prince Fang had misappropriated clan resources, so I confiscated it for further investigation.”

“Don’t play gas with , child! We cannot afford to offend Prince Fang. If we want to push back against YuanFeng and the Third Prince, our only hope is to ally with him and the Proud Mountain Kingdom. We cannot allow ourselves to be his slaves, but we must not provoke him without reason!”

YuanFei snorted. “You are a fool, uncle. Do you really think that Prince Fang will be willing to work with us after we betrayed him? With the items in his storage bag, he would have been able to rapidly cultivate back up to Grandmaster, and with an improved cultivation technique, he would have been unstoppable. We must not allow him to have access to any pills or formations. That is the only way to keep him weak and prevent him from retaliating against us.”

“Fei! You–”

YuanFei pounded a fist on the arm of his throne. “I am your Patriarch! You will address properly or not at all! I have done what is in the best interest of the clan. We do not need help from the Proud Mountain Kingdom. Not only does ShouLi have a beauty blessing, but she has also proven herself to be an incredibly talented cultivator. We will use her to form an alliance with either the empire’s Second or Fourth Prince. Then, we will hand over Prince Fang and let the empire deal with him.”

It looked like TaiZu wanted to say sothing, but YuanFei bulled forward. “As long as we are under the protection of an imperial prince, the Proud Mountain Kingdom won’t dare to raise a hand against us. In fact, after having let so hidden prince co here and cause chaos, the empire will likely punish the kingdom so severely that it won’t even dare to look in our direction. That is how we will deal with YuanFeng, the Third Prince, and Prince Fang.”

TaiZu gritted his teeth. “You’re making a mistake. If you think an imperial prince is so easy to–”

YuanFei’s nostrils flared. “You will either stop questioning my decisions, or you will step down from your position as Grand Elder.”

With my wood qi running low, I disconnected from the scene above. Then, I headed back down the mountain and returned to my apartnt.

In other circumstances, assuming that I was a prince of the Proud Mountain Kingdom, YuanFei’s plan might have worked. Unfortunately for him, the firestorm that was about to descend on the Wastes because of RuLan’s pill ant that if he tried to contact anyone from the empire, he would only be hastening the clan’s downfall.

I spent the next few days relaxing while wandering around the sixth ring and talking to its residents. I needed to continue advancing and return to Grandmaster as soon as possible, but I couldn’t let myself rush forward blindly. Aside from allowing my mind to heal after suffering the pain of my most recent advancent, I also need to give my body ti to adjust to this new cultivation technique.

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So, while I waited, I spent ti walking around and interacting with people.

As expected, entry to the workshops and the cultivation halls was barred to . So of the attendants and guards were apologetic, and so were venomously gleeful, but in both cases, their ssages were the sa. Patriarch YuanFei had ordered that the clan’s core infrastructure was only open to mbers of the Su Clan.

Each ti I heard this, I nodded and walked away, but as I did so, I used my journal to note down everyone’s behavior.

During these excursions, I would always expel all the qi I could from everywhere but my torso and right arm.

Aside from unique blessings, the only way to discover another person's level of cultivation was to look at them in qi vision. Doing so, one would generally see which muscles a person had cultivated, which ridians they had ford, if they had a dantian, and if they had a core. My hope was that by limiting the qi in my body as much as possible, I would be able to make YuanFei think that his plan to block from advancing had been successful.

In total, it took nearly two months to ascend from Disciple 1 to Peak Disciple. For others, this might seem like a blistering pace, but for , with the experience and resources I had on hand, it was a bit slow. I could only hope that future advancents would co more easily.

Not long after my ascension to Peak Disciple, ShouLi called for a eting of the leadership council to address the upcoming competition to choose a new Master of Residential Affairs. Interested in how things were progressing, I snuck up to my secret chamber to listen in.

Everyone in the council chamber looked like they hadn’t gotten much sleep over the past two months.

Even ShouLi, who had a blessing to help her maintain her outward appearance, was showing signs of exhaustion. While she didn’t have bags under her eyes, her hair was fraying, her robes were slightly askew, and she sat slumped in her chair.

She was looking at GuiMing with a desperate expression.

“Are you sure you need to step down? We can’t lose you at a ti like this.”

He bowed his head in response.

“I know, but this is what we promised the clan. I will step down and administer the test for my replacent.” He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them to give ShouLi a firm look. “Elder TaiZu–”

ShouLi pounded a fist on the table, interrupting him, but GuiMing pushed forward.

“Elder TaiZu has put a lot of effort into training his people to take over my position, and two of them have blessings helping them. If the test is fair, it is likely that one of these two will be able to defeat my subordinates and take over my seat on the council. The other will almost certainly make a play for GuiAi’s seat next year. You need to be prepared for this.”

This caused silence to take hold in the council chambers. After a few monts, GuiMing continued.

“Patriarch YuanFei has sent a ssage regarding the two sections of the first ring previously reserved for the Patriarch and Elder Bao. He has ordered to begin work on them. He will take possession of the Patriarch’s section, and Elder Bao’s section will be given to Elder TaiZu.”

ShouLi looked like she wanted to spit fire. Angry at GuiMing, she turned to Liang.

“What are we going to do about this? It’s bad enough that YuanFei and TaiZu stole the position of Patriarch, but now they're usurping our authority as well. They must be stopped.”

Liang sat there, stone-faced.

“We will follow the rules. We were the ones who decided the rules for how our successors would be chosen, and we will abide by them. As for the areas on the first ring, YuanFei is the Patriarch now, and they are his to do with as he wills. Again, that is what we all agreed on when this place was established.”

ShouLi narrowed her eyes. “And were your subordinates ‘following the rules’ when they stole the Patriarch’s storage bag?”

Liang nodded. “Yes. Patriarch YuanFei claid that the storage bag contained stolen goods and ordered the enforcers to seize it for inspection. Prince Fang currently has no official standing in the clan and wears the token of an outsider. If my subordinates had disobeyed the lawful orders of the clan’s Patriarch to protect an outsider, I would have punished them.”

Desperate, ShouLi looked to Mo, but he shook his head.

“Liang is correct. ‘Prince Fang’ gave his position to Patriarch YuanFei, and we must respect his decision. Even as a Martial Disciple, with the sect-protecting formation backing him up, ‘Prince Fang’ wouldn’t have had any problem standing up to Patriarch YuanFei. If he handed over the token of the ‘Patriarch,’ then he must have had his reasons for doing so. Follow the rules and ensure your subordinates do the sa. Other than that, do as you think best.”

“But–” ShouLi wanted to interrupt, but Mo held up a hand to stop her.

“Rember the token he showed you. Rember what he told you. ‘Prince Fang’ is not the Patriarch.”

Mo looked at her intently, but he held back from explaining anything more. This behavior made wonder if he sohow knew that soone was spying on him.

After returning to my apartnt, I sat down on a Qi Gathering Formation and focused on cultivating.

To ascend to Martial Master, I only needed to create two ridians, one that ran along the left side of my torso and one that ran along the right. Normally, this wouldn’t be overly complex, but unlike the dual-elent technique I had used in the past, the Wood-Burned Earth technique only used a single set of ridians for all three elents.

These ridians were ford from a blend of fire and earth qi, and they needed to be able to shift forms depending on the type of qi that was running through them at any given ti. When using fire or earth qi, the interior walls of the ridians needed to be ford from threads of earth qi, but when using wood qi, the interior walls needed to be ford from fire qi.

This shifting weave complicated things, and it took several days of practice to master the theory behind it. However, the mont everything clicked in my mind, I was able to start cultivating and quickly advanced to Martial Master 1.

From there, I couldn’t imdiately advance to Martial Master 2. Instead, the technique required to construct a series of ancillary ridians within my torso. These additional ridians would be used for purging my system when switching between qi types.

I completed them as swiftly as possible and then focused on creating the remaining ridians I needed one after the other.

I should have been more careful during this process. I should have taken more ti to assess my situation and understand how the placent of each ridian affected the flow of qi in my body. I just didn’t have the ti to do so.

The end of the year had already co and gone, and I had received news that YuanFei was intending to send a delegation to the Su Clan’s training compound to recruit Disciples. This foolish attempt at posturing was bound to tell everyone on the continent exactly where to find our clan, and I needed to be ready for what that would an.

Fortunately, my choice of cultivation techniques, and all the pain I had suffered cultivating it, had paid off. After reaching Peak Master, I found that the additional ridians I had constructed in my torso acted to compress any qi I stored inside them. This was enough to give nearly as much raw power as a normal Martial Grandmaster 1. When combined with earth qi that had been enhanced by wood-fueled fire qi, I had more than enough strength to construct the nodes of my illusory sky formation.