The Undying Immortal System Chapter 481 – Life 120, Age 58, Martial Lord Peak

i led through a hanging curtain of thick canvas into a smaller chamber attached to the side of the main tent. There, the formality of the audience hall gave way to a single low table flanked by cushioned stools. A kettle of lukewarm tea and several sealed maps sat forgotten on the table, while a shallow brazier painted the chamber in wavering light.

At first glance, the chamber seed rather shabby. The rugs were thick but plain, their edges uneven where they t the packed earth, while the canvas walls bore faint stains and creases from hard use on campaign. But the longer I looked, the less convincing that impression beca.

Fine threads had been worked into the rugs and tent cloth that were nearly impossible to notice unless one was searching for them. Lines no thicker than silk glimred in the firelight, weaving through the fabric in careful patterns designed to block qi and blur sound. This was a chamber for high-level etings within the war camp, built to shield its occupants from the senses of any uninvited guests.

For a mont, neither of us spoke. Then, i gestured to the stool opposite her. “Sit.”

After waiting for to do so, she folded her hands on the table and t my eyes. “Supre Elder Su, before we begin, I must make one thing clear. The Li Clan has given a great deal of help over the years, and I owe Elder Li GuiYang my unreserved loyalty. The clan has its internal disputes, as does any great clan, but I will not betray them.”

For a mont, I could only stare. Weren’t we supposed to be negotiating my surrender? Wasn’t she ant to be trying to recruit ? How had this conversation suddenly transford into trying to recruit her?

“My faction erged victorious in our war,” she continued. “Therefore, any discoveries my people and I make in body cultivation must first be handed over to the Nine Rivers Domain. Additionally, I have entered into agreents with certain external parties, agreents which will be honored. Only once these obligations have been t can I consider transferring knowledge to the other domains, such as your Heroes Domain. Body cultivation is important to everyone, but everything must happen in its proper order.”

As I processed what i was saying, I understood.

i wasn’t talking to . She was talking to our unseen eavesdroppers. The formations woven into this tent might have been enough to stop Lords and Kings, but to Sovereigns and Saints, such protections were no more substantial than tissue paper.

i was making her position clear to everyone who might be listening. She was reassuring the Nine Rivers Domain that she would not defect, telling her allies that she intended to keep her promises, and making it clear to her forr enemies that they would not be left empty-handed.

Letting a brief silence stretch between us, I considered my reply. How did I want to be perceived by our unknown observers?

“While I do not have a deep, personal connection to the Heroes Domain, the Sect Affairs Bureau has treated us well over the years. I have no reason to work against them, and I do not intend to sever ties with them unilaterally. As long as they continue to provide appropriate benefits, the knowledge I gain will be shared with the leaders of the Heroes Domain before anyone else.”

Perhaps I should have pledged my undying loyalty to the Saint of Heroes, but would anyone have believed such protestations? By honestly stating my position, I gave the Bureau a clear path forward, one built on open negotiation rather than empty words.

i gave a small smile, then nodded.

“As far as I am aware, our two forces are the foremost experts in body cultivation on the entire continent. By working together, we might be able to progress far more quickly.” Her eyes held mine, calm and level. “To explain why I say this, I need to share part of my background. If we are to discuss cooperation, then you should understand both the advantages and the limitations of working with .”

I gave her a small nod for her to continue.

“I was not born on the Extre Martial Continent,” she said. “I co from the Nine Rivers Saint’s Small World. A year or so after I received my blessing, Elder Li GuiYang brought , along with several other youths, out into the wider world.”

I motioned for her to continue, having already expected as much.

“Soon after arriving, I encountered a young man with an unusual blessing. By chance, we ended up competing against one another to see who could sell the most pills. I won.” Her expression didn’t change, but there was a faint tightening around her eyes, as though the mory carried a bitter edge. “Shortly afterward, he died, and his blessing transferred to . Ever since, I have been compelled to complete certain… missions, including the mission to defeat you and your sect in this recent war.”

That… that was sothing I hadn’t considered. Every ti I defeated Jon, my System displayed the sa ssage: External entity requesting access. i must not have been so lucky.

i had defeated Jon and absorbed his Ultimate Rival System. Then, she was given a mission to defeat . Did that an…

“The details are of little importance,” i continued. “The key point is that, by completing these missions, I can earn copies of even more blessings. Sotis, I copy a blessing in its entirety. More often, I am limited to a single feature or one particular aspect of the blessing.”

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I leaned back, watching her more closely. Information about Jon’s blessing was valuable, but I had a hard ti focusing on it. i had a mission to defeat and my sect. What reward had she been given for completing it?

“Over the next several years, I copied several minor blessings, none of which were overly useful. Eventually, I stumbled upon a blessing that taught a body cultivation technique. This technique was extrely crude, and the blessing didn’t co with any insights into its underlying principles, leaving with no clear way to improve it.”

Her gaze drifted briefly toward the brazier. “After that, every mission I completed yielded fragnts of knowledge that refined my understanding of the technique. Then, with the backing of certain interested parties, I forged these fragnts into a complete frawork for cultivating one’s body.”

I said nothing, and after a mont she continued.

“For a ti, everything appeared to be progressing smoothly. However, not long after my team succeeded in developing an enhanced Rank 1 cultivation technique, I learned that all the blessings I had been relying on were only temporary. One day, they would disappear. We would, of course, retain records of everything we had uncovered, but our ability to make further discoveries would be greatly diminished.”

She looked at , her eyes filled with aning. “You were the key to solving this problem. By defeating you, I gained the right to make three of my copied blessings permanent.”

Her fingers folded neatly atop the table. “Of course, while retaining three of these blessings will indeed be useful, losing the others will still be a significant blow. Therefore, Supre Elder Su, I would like to invite you to work alongside . With your help, I believe that, even if I personally make no further progress, both my domain and the continent as a whole can continue to advance.”

As I worked through the aning behind i’s words, I responded offhandedly, offering our unseen eavesdroppers a few scraps of unimportant information.

“No one in my sect possesses a blessing that can help you unlock any new secrets of body cultivation, but that hardly matters. I studied the experints you left behind at Blackblade Hall. This gave enough information to replicate what you were trying to do, even without the help of a blessing. I am confident in my ability to keep moving forward without external assistance. To a point, at least.”

i’s eyes sharpened with interest, though it seed sowhat feigned.

“I had already suspected as much,” she said. “But would you truly turn down additional resources? Join the Nine Rivers Domain and work with . You will be given all the resources you could desire. No longer will you need to make do with what scraps the Sect Affairs Bureau allows you access to.”

As I opened my mouth to respond, i held up a hand to stop .

“You possess your own Small World, do you not? An independent space created by your blessing? A place where we can speak in true privacy?”

I stared at i, then let my gaze drift around the room, idly wondering how many hidden portals might be surrounding us. Was this why i had declared her loyalty up front? Had that been what she needed to do to secure a private conversation with ?

As I raised a hand to send her into my inner world, i spoke up to stop .

“I must warn you that allowing others into your Small World is not without risk. Once soone advances to Martial Sovereign, they can open a portal to any place they have previously visited. If I fail to recruit you, I am supposed to recruit a talented mber of your sect, soone who has entered your Small World and possesses the potential to advance to Sovereign. The Li Clan would then be able to use this person to seize your world and claim it as their own. If you allow to enter, there will be no need for such a circuitous approach. When the ti cos, I will be able to open the portal myself.”

I smiled, waved a hand, and pulled i inside. If the Li Clan thought they could seize my inner world, they were in for a nasty surprise. Unlike a normal Small World, mine was located deep within my soul, giving far greater authority over it than anyone would expect.

Still, I had no intention of letting i see Chang’an, nor would I let her anywhere near the karmic groves on the Plane of Woody Earth. Instead, I sent her, the table, and the pot of lukewarm tea to a remote mountaintop on the Plane of Earth.

The mont she appeared, her eyes widened as she silently took in the black mountains and the strange, void-like sky. Others might think that her shock ca from being teleported to an entirely new world. I knew better. What really shocked her was the fact that her connection to her blessing had just been severed.

Before I could count to three, i had already regained control of herself. Her expression smoothed over, and she turned to face the figure opposite her. Then, she stood, circled the table, and passed a hand through my torso.

“A projection?” she asked. “We assud you were contacting people in your Small World through so form of communication formation. This is rather unexpected. How are you able to maintain a full projection through the barrier between worlds?”

When I offered no response, i gave a rueful smile, as though she had expected nothing else.

“I asked for privacy because there are a few details I needed to clarify,” she said. “The blessing I inherited from that young man gives missions. If I complete them, I receive a reward. If I fail, I die. That much is true. However, none of my rewards have ever disappeared. As far as I can tell, they are all permanent. The only reason I have to suspect otherwise is the reward I received for defeating your sect. Why offer to make my rewards permanent if they were permanent to start with?”

She looked up and down, trying to read my reaction. “After you conceded defeat, I received a new mission: to recruit you and create a lasting alliance with you and your sect. Unlike every other mission I’ve been given, this one has no penalty for failure. Its reward is the ability to retain my mories, permanently.”

My mouth opened before I could stop it, shock breaking through my composure.

“The description of the reward contains a clarification, which again is extrely unusual. I will retain my mories, but not the growth of my body, soul, or cultivation base.”

I sat in silence, unsure how to respond.

i watched for a mont, then spoke in the sa calm tone as before. “I ask you plainly: are you willing to join the Nine Rivers Domain? Are you willing to build a lasting alliance with ?”

I had no answer. The implications were too broad, the stakes too high.

Seeing my hesitation, i gave a slight nod. “No need to answer imdiately. There is no ti limit. Think it over. When you’ve made your final decision, let know.”

With our conversation temporarily at an end, I sent i out of my inner world, left the war camp, and made my way back to Black Eagle City. I needed to put so distance between myself and that place to clear my head.