The Undying Immortal System Chapter 444 – Life 116, Age 17, Martial Disciple Peak

As soon as my short lesson on focus items was over, I returned to our sect’s villa and concocted an Energy Expulsion Pill for ng LuYao, allowing her to begin cultivating a dual-elent guandao-light technique. Then, since it would make studying significantly easier, I went down to the basent and started cultivating.

Using a Rank 1 guandao to advance to Martial Master was surprisingly difficult. The weapon was more than capable of channeling all the qi I required. However, the process of condensing this energy and weaving it into ridians created a significant amount of back pressure, making worried that my guandao might explode. So, I had to carefully monitor my qi vortices, ensuring that I always had enough energy to continue advancing, while also not putting too much stress on my weapon.

My lifetis of cultivation practice proved their worth, though, and after only a little over a week, I completed my advancent to Martial Master, becoming the first mber of our group to do so.

Kan, JiuLi, and YuLong had the advantage of using our villa’s Rank 2 guandaos, but without even one full life of mories to draw upon, their progress was markedly slower. Of course, compared to cultivators who hadn’t used a mory orb, they were learning to create ridians at a blistering pace.

Surprisingly, only one day later, JiuLi beca the second mber of our group to advance. I had expected this to be YuLong, but JiuLi’s crafting pursuits had prepared her for weaving ridians in ways that YuLong couldn’t compete with.

Still, by the end of the month, both YuLong and Kan were able to advance to Martial Master, leaving ng LuYao to struggle through the ranks of Martial Disciple on her own.

I considered using this month to study formations, but I instead stayed down in the basent, carefully weaving together the ridians in my right arm, ascending all the way to Martial Master 3.

Rapidly advancing without giving my cultivation base ti to settle carried the risk of creating a severe ntal imbalance—especially since my Rank 1 and 2 cultivation techniques weren’t exactly compatible with each other. My Rank 1 technique urged to violence, while my Rank 2 technique urged to create.

I wasn’t too worried about this, though. I didn’t plan to keep this cultivation base long, and I was interested to see what urges this combination might induce.

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At the end of our first month as an Eight-Star Sect, I sent everyone to our cottage on the Plane of Woody Earth, where both a soul avatar and YuLong’s sister were waiting to greet them.

“As everyone should already know,” I said, “this week marks the start of the Central Continent’s blessing ceremonies. In just a few days, newly awakened cultivators will begin showing up at the Broken Spear Outpost, all of them hoping to join a sect. We need to discuss how we plan to deal with this.”

Kan gave a funny look. “What do you an? Why does it matter? We’re recruiting people from Chang’an, aren’t we?”

“The problem,” I said, “is the ti difference. The clans in Chang’an won’t have their awakening ceremonies for another eight months. A newly risen Eight-Star Sect not recruiting anyone during its first year might not be too strange, but recruiting people eight months after the blessing ceremony is. This isn’t sothing that we would be able to hide, either. After we accept a new Disciple into our sect, we have to register them with the Bureau before they start cultivating.”

As Kan sank into thought, ng LuYao smiled at . “So, what’s the plan, Fang? I’m sure you already have one, right?”

I looked between Kan and JiuLi, my face taking on a grim cast. “First, I need to warn you. Do not repeat what I’m about to say—not to outsiders, not to mbers of our sect, not to mbers of your own family, understood?”

After getting two solemn nods of agreent, I allowed my expression to soften. “My blessing gives a limited ability to travel back through ti. You’ve experienced this once before, though I’m not sure you entirely understood what was happening. We went on that shopping trip in Iron Spear City. Then, I took us back through ti, making it so that trip never happened. This is also how I produced those mory orbs during the tournant.”

Kan and JiuLi gave each other a look of understanding. Given what they had seen, and considering the myths and legends that were still floating around Chang’an, this revelation was less a shock and more a confirmation of what they already knew.

“It has its limitations, but this ti-travel blessing is the solution to our current predicant. We wait eight months. Then, we travel back in ti to this exact mont. This will bring the calendars of the two worlds into alignnt, and we’ll be able to recruit people from Chang’an without raising undue suspicions.”

Everyone just stared at , their faces masks of confusion—even YuLong’s and ng LuYao’s.

“All of us?” asked YuLong, cautiously, “We’ll all be traveling through ti? Or are you talking about using mory orbs?”

I shook my head. “No, this is sothing I realized during that shopping trip. As long as you’re here—on this plane—you can go back with . We’ll have eight months to advance in ways that wouldn’t normally be possible for a First-Class Sect.”

Off to my left, YuHua grinned. “ too? Does this an I finally get to go outside?”

After a mont of hesitation, I grimaced, and YuHua's face fell, expecting the worst.

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“YuHua… The five of us are protected by the Bureau’s regulations. Even without being a First-Class Sect, we will still have the protections that co from living in the Bureau’s villa. You’re too young, though. You can’t beco a mber of a sect until you turn 16. If you go out there, you might be targeted. You could die. If that happens…”

I could create a reset point with YuHua in the outside world, ensuring her survival, but then she wouldn’t be able to travel back through ti with us. She’d forget everything that happened. A mory orb might be able to help with this, but since she wasn’t old enough to cultivate, she couldn’t use them.

Seeing her downcast expression, I glanced over at YuLong, then nodded. “You can visit the city, but you have to stay by my side the entire ti, understand? That way, if sothing goes wrong, I’ll be able to save you.”

YuHua's grin quickly returned, and she nodded enthusiastically. “Yes!”

“This is an opportunity,” I said, looking back at my four sectmates, “but we need to be careful. Don’t die out there, and do not break the rules of First-Class Sects. If you accept the help of a Grandmaster, then you’ve accepted the help of a Grandmaster. Even if you go back in ti to before it happened, accepting such aid could still cause issues the next ti you’re interrogated in front of a truth stone.”

JiuLi scrunched up her nose. “If we still have to follow the rules, then how will we be able to advance in ways not possible for First-Class Sects?”

I grinned. “We can’t accept the help of a Grandmaster—that doesn’t change. The rules concerning contribution points, however, are a bit more flexible.”

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While I still have that reset point that I had created during the tournant, I wanted to keep that as a back stop in case anything went horribly wrong. So, sitting in our villa’s basent, I connected to an avatar in my treasury.

“System, purchase a new temporary reset point.”

Purchase confird. Cost 1 credit. 58,984 credits remaining.

Then, I took Kan, JiuLi, YuLong, and ng LuYao out of my inner world, and we all headed directly for the Sect Affairs Bureau.

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“What?” asked the Bureau’s clerk, blinking at , confused.

“We wish to alter our sect’s status,” said Kan. “We want a downgrade to a Second-Class Sect.”

The process of downgrading our sect’s status was far more complex than I had assud. Each of us faced questions about our intentions. Then, the clerk’s manager stepped in to try to talk us out of it. It was hours before the final piece of paperwork was stamped and carefully filed away.

This done, our group headed up to the second floor, where I took out a few bottles of nine-patterned pills and sold them for more contribution points than we could possibly spend. We then used these points to sign up for lessons and purchase a wide variety of crafting materials.

As I had told JiuLi, we couldn’t break the rules for First-Class Sects, aning we couldn’t accept undue help, but purchasing items from the Bureau was perfectly legal. Sure, we couldn’t exactly travel back through ti with a Rank 4 or 5 weapon strapped to our backs, but training and information was fair ga.

Sadly, the most valuable information—such as Earth-Rank techniques—wasn’t available to Second-Class Sects, but I didn’t see this as much of a loss. The mbers of our sect needed to earn those techniques. These eight months were just to help give Kan and JiuLi a boost, making that slightly easier to accomplish.

ng LuYao signed up for lessons on illusions, while JiuLi registered for classes on refining. Neither of these ca as much of a surprise, and I could only hope that they would learn sothing that would open up new layers of understanding on these topics.

YuLong, in contrast, decided to avoid learning a profession entirely. In the past, he had spent so ti learning both formations and talismans, but neither of these topics had ever resonated with him. So, he instead signed up for lessons on how to be a better teacher. He also registered as a teacher of the guandao.

The one who really surprised was Kan. In his forr life, Liang had hated spending ti on professions. All he wanted to learn was martial arts. Kan, however, took to talisman artistry like a fish to water. His only reason for learning about talismans was to improve his combat ability, but I still saw this as a marked improvent.

I, anwhile, split my attention between refining and formations. First, I made weapons. Then, I carved formations into them, making them as deadly as possible.

As the months passed, I continued advancing my cultivation. I rapidly ascended all the way to Peak Master, causing the ntal impulses of my two conflicting cultivation techniques to compound upon each other. I could have fought against this, but I didn’t. Instead, I channeled these impulses into my craft and worked to forge the most vicious weapon I possibly could.

Using claws to create scythe-like guandaos was flashy, but after a few experints, I found them lacking in practicality. I didn’t need a focus that changed the guandao. I needed one that perfected it.

This led to a simple idea: what would be a better focus for guandao qi than a guandao itself?

So, using the rarest, high-quality Rank 2 materials I could buy, I created the effigy of a guandao. Roughly the size of my palm, this was the most perfect representation of a guandao that I was capable of constructing.

I refined and enhanced this effigy with enough energy that it was practically buzzing. Then, I used a Focus Condensing Formation to shatter it, leaving behind nothing but a bundle of energy that I stuffed into a larger, proper guandao.

This transfer was a success, but the overall formation was a failure. The effigy attuned the formation’s energy to the essence of what it ant to be a guandao, so the energy had to be used in a way that was consistent with its nature.

After consulting with a few of the Bureau’s Grandmaster Formation Specialists, I settled on a rather straightforward solution. Instead of altering a weapon’s shape or function, I created a formation to only increase its size. Essentially, this formation created a giant, 20-ter-long spectral guandao made of pure energy. In a one-on-one fight, such a formation wouldn’t be of much use, but against a beast tide, I would be able to mow down a dozen opponents with a single swing.

Nothing would be able to stand in my way as I bathed in the blood of an endless horde of beasts.

The mont this thought entered my mind, I slamd my acupoints shut, sealing it away. Then, with a calr, more rational mind, I began researching other potential focus items.

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Several months later, I gathered everyone up and sent them to the Plane of Woody Earth. Then, I sat down in our villa’s courtyard and swallowed a pill.

You have died.