The Undying Immortal System Chapter 267: Life 75, Age 16, Martial Grandmaster 1

Over the next year, I raised my cultivation base as quickly as possible. With the resources available to , and with the amount of experience I had with low-level cultivation, this was nothing overly difficult, but since I was using a new technique, I wanted to take my ti.

The reason I was in such a rush was that I didn’t want to keep everyone trapped inside my storage space for any longer than necessary. Ideally, people would want to stay inside and build a real community in there, but I knew that the space wasn’t ready for that yet.

Most importantly, while within my storage space, no one was able to cultivate. As an experint, I used a combination of spirit stones, spirit fires, and formations to create areas with extrely dense qi, but this hadn’t done any good. As ShouLi had told , the problem wasn’t a lack of qi. The problem was that qi didn’t behave properly. It was nearly impossible to control. My spirit fire-powered formations worked, but after the qi left them, it beca unusable, even though it remained trapped within the formation’s barrier.

Figuring out the cause of this would take ti, and keeping everyone locked away while I tried to do so felt wrong. Until my storage space was more habitable, I couldn’t expect people to stay inside indefinitely. I needed to let them out.

I considered taking everyone sowhere new. I could settle them down in so remote city and set up a few formations to protect them from as much danger as possible. However, after only a mont of thought, I felt that this was likely the worst option possible. The clan’s most powerful cultivators would be joining the sect, so any group left outside wouldn’t have any leaders or protectors. We needed to stick together.

In the short term, cycling people in and out of our manor in South Gate City would work, but what we really needed was a city to call our own. We needed a place where I could set up all the defenses I wanted and where the younger and less powerful mbers of our clan could live in relative obscurity.

Thankfully, the Nine Rivers Sect had a way to make this happen. I just needed to beco a Lord first.

So, I advanced to Martial Grandmaster as quickly as I felt was prudent. However, I didn’t try to rashly push past Grandmaster 1. With my understanding of acupoint control, and with the quality of my cultivation base, I didn’t expect to have any problems with ntal influences, but I still wanted to give my energy body ti to acclimate. Also, since I hadn’t reached Grandmaster with the Wood-Burned Earth technique, I wanted to fully understand the dantian that I had created before continuing forward.

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As the end of the year approached, I made a few final arrangents with my Revered Elders. They would be staying in the manor along with Cao, ng LuYao, and a few dozen mbers of my clan so that they could continue cultivating in peace. Once they reached Grandmaster, they would be able to join us in the sect, but there was no rush. No one was at risk of stagnation, so everyone could take their ti and do things right.

After giving everyone a chance to say goodbye, I led the leadership council and a small group of 22 other Grandmasters to participate in the Nine Rivers Sect’s Entrance Exam.

The Grandmasters who had joined were from a mix of every elent except for wind, and I was a bit worried about what would happen when we all split up upon entering the sect. The elental peaks we would be sent to each had their own rules, and while most of them were safe, so were exceptionally dangerous.

This was the main reason I had chosen to join the Fire Peak.

From past lives, I knew that the PangBo rchant Association had so chanism in place for implanting promising new alchemists with soul gu. While the other peaks no doubt held dangers of their own, I considered the Fire Peak to be the most dangerous, so I wanted to go there personally to ensure everyone’s safety.

Aside from myself, there were only two other people joining the Fire Peak, RuLan and XuJian, a young man I wasn’t familiar with. As RuLan was Emperor Li’s personal disciple, even if he didn’t know it yet, targeting her would be about the dumbest thing the PangBo Association could do, so I didn’t need to worry about her.

XuJian, on the other hand, was neither an exceptional cultivator nor an exceptional alchemist. He was decent at both, though, so he was exactly the type of person a group of slave traders would want to target. However, as long as I entered the sect before him, I would be able to ensure that nothing went wrong. In the worst-case scenario, I would just need to throw him into my soul space and rush back to Mortal City where the sect’s rules would protect us.

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As usual, it took us several days of waiting in line before it was our turn to be tested.

When we reached the front of the queue, I looked around at the people who had joined .

“Rember, stay safe. After you are brought into the sect, your most important objective is to get back to Mortal City. Try not to offend anyone, but if you do, don’t worry about it too much. None of the real big shots will try to recruit you imdiately.”

After everyone signaled their understanding, I turned and entered the building.

The place was just as I rembered it. To my left, scribes sat at a long desk and recorded everyone's information. To my right, a hallway led off to the sect’s teleportation portal, and in front of , there was the large black hole that served as the entrance to the Exam’s Trial.

I walked up to the table on my left. When the head scribe addressed , he seed bored. It must have been a rather slow day.

“Na?”

“Su Fang.”

“Age?”

“16.”

He paused his writing and looked up at . “You were blessed at the start of this year?”

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He narrowed his eyes and examined in qi vision. “You… are a Martial Grandmaster… How…”

Suddenly, he shook himself and returned to the standard questions.

“Blessing?”

“It has a few nuances, but it has helped gain a comprehensive understanding of both cultivation and several related professions.”

The scribe raised an eyebrow but noted this down without comnt. Then, he pointed to an affinity testing orb.

I placed my hand on the orb and channeled my qi into it without restricting my acupoints. When it showed nothing but a mix of chaotic lines, the scribe tapped on it to resolve them. 𝔯𝐚𐌽öᛒËŚ

Nine symbols shone brightly in the orb, and a faint crackle of static surrounded them. Upon seeing this, the scribe blanched.

“Pe… Peak four-star earth, tal, and lightning. Everything else is peak five-star? Who… Who are you?”

The mont these words escaped his mouth, the scribe’s eyes widened in horror.

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. Please, you may enter the portal to begin the Exam whenever you are ready.”

I smiled and gave him a martial salute, but this only seed to make him want to cry, so I quickly turned away and faced the entrance to the Exam.

As I approached, I rembered my old custom.

“System, create a ntal reversion point for so that when I exit the portal, my ntal state returns to exactly how it was when I entered with any foreign influences removed.”

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Then, I stepped into the portal.

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I stepped out of the portal and turned to face the desk to my right.

The head scribe was staring at sothing, and his face was as white as a sheet.

I approached him and cupped my hands in a martial salute. “Hello, what are my results?”

He turned and stared at with eyes wide and mouth agape. He looked like he had seen a monster.

“You… You… You have been offered positions as a grade 3 core disciple on the Wood, Fire, Earth, tal, and Lightning Peaks. You have also been offered positions as an ungraded core disciple on the Water, Wind, Light, and Dark Peaks. You may… choose whichever one you wish…”

I smiled and bowed my head. The positions on the Fire, Earth, tal, and Lightning Peaks made sense, but the one on the Wood Peak seed a bit high—my herbalism skills shouldn’t have been good enough. As for the positions on the other four peaks, those didn’t conform to my understanding of this test at all. Whoever was in charge must have assud that since I had mastered four skills, then I could master the others just as easily.

This was interesting, but it didn’t change my intentions.

“I will join the Fire Peak.”

The scribe dipped his head and quickly gestured for one of his assistants to lead away.

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The Fire Peak was a rather bleak and depressing hellscape. The peak itself was a dormant volcano, and nearly all the ground around it was solid black basalt.

My guide led to the large village at the base of this volcano.

While I had never been a mber of the Fire Peak, I had visited it a couple of tis in the past, so I was already familiar with its basic layout. The first ti I had visited, I had expected all the buildings to be made of pure basalt since it was so abundant here, but instead, the buildings were made from expensive sandalwood and sat upon bright marble foundations.

The administration hall was a large, opulent structure near the village's entrance. Several ornants wrought from pure gold stood on its roof, and the paintings on its eaves were all so form of high-Rank talismans. While these ‘talismans’ contained a lot of power, from what I could tell, they were entirely useless. They were nothing more than a show of wealth.

Inside the hall, an older man in fine silks sat behind a long ebony counter.

My guide bowed to him. “Deacon Leng, this is Su Fang. He is a new disciple who has joined the Fire Peak.”

The deacon smiled at .

“Excellent.” He placed a hand on a formation beneath his desk to signal soone outside. “One of our older disciples will be here shortly to show you around. While we wait, we can get you registered.”

He turned to my guide. “What was Disciple Su’s placent in the Exam?”

“H… He… He is a grade 3 core disciple, deacon.”

Instantly, the smile on the deacon’s face vanished. “What?”

“Gr… Grade 3. Core.”

The door to the hall opened and a middle-aged man stepped inside. He had a rather somber look about him, and his eyes never left the floor. He turned to where the deacon had just pushed himself up from his chair and gave a deep bow.

“Deacon, I am here to guide the new disciple.”

Deacon Leng’s eyes shot to the man. “Not now! Leave!”

The middle-aged man looked confused, but he turned around and did as ordered.

Before he left, I scanned him using energy vision. He was a Peak Grandmaster, but his cultivation base was… It was awful. I had a hard ti believing that anyone could have joined the sect in such a condition.

The deacon stepped out from behind his desk, approached , and gave a martial salute.

“Junior Brother Su, it is an honor that you have chosen to join our Fire Peak. Please, allow to show you around.”

I smiled at him and dipped my head. “Thank you, Deacon Leng, but I need to return to Mortal City and reunite with my subordinates. Perhaps later.”

“Of course, Junior Brother. Of course. If you have any questions, please co and find .”

I dipped my head to him one last ti and exited the building.

Once outside, I separated from my guide and found a nearby teahouse where I could wait for RuLan and XuJian.

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As I had expected, about an hour later, RuLan left the administration hall on her own with the token of a core disciple hanging from her waist. Since that token should be enough to keep her safe, I didn’t step out to et her and simply watched as she headed back to the portal to Mortal City.

About half an hour after that, XuJian entered the building, but he didn’t exit so quickly. When he finally did co back out, he was being led by the sa somber man that I had seen earlier.

This older Grandmaster led XuJian through the twisting streets of the village and pointed out various important places along the way. Finally, they ca to a secluded garden tucked behind a couple of alchemy workshops, and the two of them sat down across from each other on a pair of stone benches.

“Disciple XuJian, you must understand that surviving in the sect is extrely difficult. There are many factions that are constantly battling each other, and if you don’t have a sturdy tree trunk to cling to, the storms will blow you away.”

XuJian nodded slowly. “I can see that. But–”

“Listen, my… boss appreciates talents like you.” The man pulled a pill bottle out of his robes and presented it to XuJian. “As a sign of his appreciation, he offers you these pills. They were made by a powerful Pill Lord and will assist you in breaking through to Peak Grandmaster as soon as possible. You don’t have to accept this offer now. All I ask is that you think about it. After you do, co and find .”

XuJian nodded. “Thank you, Senior Brother.”

The man smiled, patted XuJian on the shoulder, and then turned to leave.

Before he could, I stepped out from the shadows and slamd a talisman into his chest.

His whole body arced with lightning.

When it was over, the man collapsed to the ground.

XuJian shot to his feet and looked at , horrified. “What… What did you do?”

“Soul Cleansing Talisman.”

I walked over and took the bottle from XuJian’s unresisting hands.

Then, I poured out one of the pills and analyzed it.

Low-Purity Rank 3 Qi Gathering Pill (tainted), 23% dicinal Efficacy. Value: 340,000 gold.

Part of wanted to crush the pill instantly, but instead, I placed it back in the bottle, sealed the lid, and hid it away deep in my storage space.

Yan had been right. Gu were useful for more than just controlling a person’s soul, and I would eventually need to begin to understand them better.

Finally, I placed a stack of talismans next to the somber man’s unconscious form and wrote a quick note about how to use them.