The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 222: Life 73, Age 32, Martial Grandmaster Peak

When I had left five young cultivators with poor foundations alone on top of a mountain for five days, I had known that there would likely be problems. The group might not mesh together well, and there might be arguments. With cultivation techniques in the mix, there might even be fights. However, based on who I had chosen to join me and the protections I had put in place, I didn’t expect anything to get too far out of hand.

When I returned to Mount Jiang and found Liang’s broken and unconscious body lying on one of the lower cliffs of the mountain, I had to admit that things had gone a bit beyond my expectations.

Upon reaching him, I popped a Rank 2 Healing Pill in his mouth and shoved him into my storage space. After climbing up to the plateau on top of the mountain, I took him out and carried him over to the area where everyone had been building their new houses.

These houses were in various stages of construction, but I didn’t waste time appraising them. I just walked to the rough center of the construction zone and started shouting.

“Get out here! Now!”

Only a moment after my call, three young cultivators rushed out to greet me.

“Where’s GuiMing?”

My tone was as frosty as I could make it, and they all backed up a step at my words.

Under the pressure of my presence, his sister, GuiAi, could only shakily raise a finger and point to the house that she had just exited.

I walked over, looked inside, and found the boy lying half-dead on the ground. I pushed a pill into his mouth and carried him back to the rest of the group.

Then, I took out a chair, sat down, and waited for both boys to regain consciousness.

GuiMing was the first to come around. When he sat up and tried to ask a question, his sister silenced him and pointed in my direction. He lowered his head to me and slowly stood up on shaky legs.

A couple of minutes later, Liang regained consciousness, and Mo pulled him to his feet.

When Liang saw me, he did not bow or lower his head at all. He just gave me a disdainful sneer.

I looked around at everyone and studied their reactions.

“Explain.”

My command was simple, but from the faces that greeted me, I could see that none of them wanted to be the first to speak.

Finally, it was ShouLi who stepped forward.

“Prince Fang—”

I gave her a thunderous look, and she corrected herself.

“Patriarch… After you left, we did as you asked and began constructing our new homes. Liang was the first to finish. With nothing else to do, he entered seclusion and spent all his time cultivating. After breaking through to Peak Disciple, he informed us that he intended to go down the mountain to explore.”

I nodded to her. This was a bit beyond my expectations. Liang had only been a Martial Disciple 8 when we arrived here, so I hadn’t expected him to be able to both construct a house and advance two levels in the brief time I was away.

Looking at him, I saw that the way he had achieved this rapid advancement was by completely ignoring his qi filters. The two acupoints he had unblocked filled with nothing but impurities.

“Fine.” I turned my attention from ShouLi to GuiMing. “That explains him. How did you get injured?”

“Pa… Patriarch…”

GuiAi stepped up to explain for him. “When Liang decided to head off into the wilderness alone, Ming tried to stop him. You told us not to leave, and Ming was doing his best to follow your orders. That… That bastard nearly killed him for it.”

Her eyes were red, and tears were running down her face.

I looked around the group. “Did anyone else try to stop him?”

They all shook their heads.

“Did anyone try to protect GuiMing?”

They all looked down and, again, shook their heads.

I turned to ShouLi. “You were trained as one of the Su Clan’s elites. You might only be a Martial Disciple 4, but you should have had the skills to stop Liang. You should have at least been able to protect GuiMing. Why didn’t you?” ???????

“I…” Her eyes wandered around the scene, stopping briefly on both boys. She seemed both angry and confused. “It wasn’t my place to get involved. Liang ignored your orders, but he is your First Disciple. It wasn’t my place to stop him.”

I nodded at her and turned to Mo.

“What is your part in all of this?”

“I… just kept working on my home. There was nothing I could do…”

Seeing GuiAi, I could tell that she had been caring for her brother, so I skipped over her and focused on Liang.

“Why did you decide to leave?”

He snorted. “I wanted to challenge the cultivators below. You said they’re powerful, but I will prove you wrong.”

Nodding in agreement, I pulled out an Energy Expulsion Pill and flicked it into the boy’s mouth before he could say anything else.

Suddenly, energy burst forth from Liang’s body, and his cultivation base vanished.

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He stared at me in horror. “What... What did you do?”

I smiled at him. “Tell me again. Why did you decide to leave the mountain?”

“Patriarch… I…” He stammered and looked around confused. His eyes darted everywhere around him. “I thought…”

I waved him to silence. “This is a good lesson for you all. I am encouraging you to advance as rapidly as possible so that you can experience what this does to your mind. Rapid advancement, especially advancement at the cost of qi purity, will drive you insane. I want you all to experience this. I want you to feel what it’s like, to understand these impulses, and to try to control them. Then, I will give you a pill to reset your cultivation to Martial Disciple 1, and you will start again.”

I gestured to Liang. “You have reached Peak Disciple with a Low-Yellow earth cultivation technique. You may now choose to practice a Mid-Yellow earth technique, or you may choose a Low-Yellow technique of a different element. I do not know which will be easier for you to learn, but you should take your affinities into account during this selection.”

Folding my hands together in front of me, I looked around at the group. “This will be your training cycle. Rise to Peak Disciple, destroy your cultivation base, and then start again. You may stop this cycle at any time, but I will only provide you with a Rank 2 technique if your cultivation base is pristine and free of impurities. If you are incapable of achieving this, you will remain a Martial Disciple for the rest of your life.”

This speech didn’t fill anyone with a desire to grow stronger like I hoped it would. Instead, it seemed to push them more toward despair. That being the case, I figured it was about time to hand out some rewards.

“If you have questions about cultivation, you come and ask me. For now, let’s look at what each of you have built.”

I stood and made my way to their houses.

Liang, GuiAi, and GuiMing all claimed that their new homes were ‘complete.’

Liang’s house reminded me a lot of his cultivation base. It was a simple stone hut with four walls, a roof, and a dirt floor. He hadn’t spent any time on niceties. He just got it done as quickly as possible. This showed me once again that he had no interest in learning anything to do with earth qi. His narrow focus was a bit problematic, but I would let him make his own choices. I just wouldn’t reward him for them.

GuiAi’s and GuiMing’s houses were nearly identical, and it was clear that they had discussed their plans with each other before and during the building process. These houses had a raised stone foundation that provided a solid, flat floor. The walls were sturdy and straight. As a whole, these homes were rather well-built. Like Liang’s house, these were small one-room cottages, but they showed much more care in their construction.

After reviewing the completed buildings, I looked at Mo’s.

The biggest reason why he wasn’t finished was because he had spent a lot of time compacting soil to create a solid stone floor that was flush with the earth around it. The layer of soil on top of the mountain was extremely thin, and Mo didn’t have the strength needed to flatten out the blueschist beneath it, so constructing a perfectly flat floor without raising it above ground level was a bit of an achievement.

This design would be a bit problematic during a rainstorm since water would easily be able to seep beneath the door, but it showed that Mo had put a bit of extra thought into how the earth-moving technique could be used.

Finally, looking at ShouLi’s house, it was clear to me that she was used to being a princess of the Su Clan. Having the best cultivation base and the most training of anyone here, she had been able to quickly construct a basic three-room house and had been spending most of her time carving intricate reliefs into every wall.

This showed a dedication to detail, but the method she used to create these reliefs was nothing special. It was the same action she would have used when initially cutting the blocks from the original boulders.

I appraised each of these houses but refrained from sharing my thoughts. Once I had a clear understanding of where things stood, I motioned to the western side of the mountain.

“Follow me.”

Upon reaching the base of the small, raised section of the plateau where I planned to build my house, I took out a large stack of lumber and placed it on the ground.

“Without earth qi, it is difficult for me to properly demonstrate the use of the earth-moving technique, but the Rank 1 wood-shaping technique shares many similarities with it. Anything that I can do with wood, you should be able to do with stone.”

I lifted a long, square beam and channeled my energy into it. The length of the beam shrunk, and its density increased by several times.

When it was only half a meter long, I threw it into the ground, and it embedded itself in an upright position. I did this several more times to create a square grid of evenly spaced poles.

Then, I threw a collection of beams and boards onto these poles and manipulated them to form floor joists, a floor, walls, and a roof. I didn’t fasten these various pieces of wood together with nails. Instead, I used my qi to merge everything into a single composite piece of wood. This process took a bit of concentration, but since I was only working with basic, mortal lumber it required almost no energy.

Once all the structural components of the building were in place, I walked up to the wall and ran a hand across it while channeling my qi. The wood darkened in places to form a simple geometric pattern. Then, instead of carving features into the wood, I pressed my hand into it to mold it into a somewhat pleasing design. I was no artist, and I was working rather fast, so the end result wasn’t anything exceptional, but it showed off what was possible with a basic Rank 1 technique.

After placing a few steps leading up to the door and adding a couple of finishing touches, I turned to the five Disciples who were watching in amazement.

“I intend to make our clan a dominant force on this continent, and we will have to look the part. This building doesn’t even come anywhere close to meeting such lofty ambitions. It is only an example piece that’s useful for showing off a few basic techniques, but for now, it’s good enough.” I waved at the doorway. “Enter.”

Once everyone was inside, I took the stone discs inscribed with Essence Gathering Formations out of my storage space and placed them around the room.

“This building will serve as our new Affinity Hall. In the past, I required Liang and Mo to advance together to earn time on these formations. That will no longer be necessary. Any time you advance your cultivation base, you will earn one hour in this room which you can use to raise any of the available affinities that you wish.

“Su Liang, you have advanced two stages, entitling you to two hours with any formation you desire. For constructing a substandard house, you are awarded one additional hour.

“Su GuiAi, you are a Martial Disciple 4 and did not have an opportunity to visit the hall when we were at the Su Clan, so you are entitled to an initial four hours. As you have built a decent house, you are awarded an additional two hours.

“Su GuiMing, you will also be given four hours for your cultivation base and two hours for your completed home. You will also be given an additional six hours for attempting to stop one of your clan members from killing himself.”

A wave of shock gasps could be heard at this pronouncement, especially from Liang, but I didn’t stop.

“Su ShouLi, you are granted four hours for your cultivation base. However, you are deducted two hours for failing to assist your fellow clan members in any way when you had the ability to do so. Do not let it happen again.”

I tossed a pill bottle to ShouLi. “You are using a High-Yellow cultivation technique, but as you have seen, I would prefer you start with a Low-Yellow technique and work your way up. You may continue with your current technique if you wish, but it will slow the rate at which you can earn time in the Affinity Hall.”

I turned to Liang. “The new Technique Hall will be constructed shortly. You need to start thinking about which technique you want to cultivate next. Consider your choice carefully and use your time here to improve your affinity with the element that matches that technique. I know you want to cultivate lighting qi, but you need to think about if that is truly the right next step for you. Raising your affinity with lightning will take significantly longer than raising your affinity with any other element. I doubt you have enough time saved up to acquire even a low nine-star affinity with it.”

I looked around at each of them. “If you want advice, I will give it to you, but your choices are your own. I will not interfere with them.”

With that, I turned and left them alone to consider their options.