The Undying Immortal System

Within the sect, acquiring enough karmic energy to ascend to Peak Emperor was a rather daunting task.

Lower down the mountain, there were dozens of merchant associations that were willing to pay premium prices for high-quality pills, formations, and weapons. Having existed for centuries, these associations had built up large reserves of contribution points for whenever ‘geniuses’ passed by, and they would use these reserves to purchase as many items crafted by these geniuses as possible.

However, in Heaven City, this wasn’t the case. There were a few small shops, but there were no large associations, and there was no one looking to buy Rank 6 pills or formations in bulk.

So, to earn contribution points, I was forced to use the Fire Peak’s Mission Hall. The only problem with this was that the Mission Hall only offered a small number of Emperor-level missions each year. This might have simply been because few people on this continent were both in need of and able to pay for the help of a Rank 6 individual, but I felt that it was also, at least partially, a way to force people up to the Summit. With Emperor-level karmic energy being so scarce, many people would likely choose to ascend the mountain instead of waiting around to accrue enough points to advance to Peak Emperor.

This is all to say that acquiring enough energy for my advancement to Peak Emperor took time—it took decades—but eventually, by completing every alchemy mission I could get my hands on, I was finally about to make it there.

Of course, while advancing my cultivation base took time, it was time well spent. During the long stretches between missions, I focused on practicing refining and formations in order to master the art of crafting memory orbs.

As I slowly came to discover, the principles behind these orbs were rather interesting.

To make a memory orb, first, a skilled earth cultivator needed to craft a monocrystalline block of pure white jade. Then, a refiner needed to alter the core of this crystal and rearrange its molecules into an amorphous state. This ‘amorphous state’ lacked the regularity and order of the original crystalline structure, but it wasn’t random. To hold memories properly, an orb required a very precise structure for its amorphous core.

The reason why a complete monocrystalline structure was produced first was because it provided an outer shell to protect the delicate inner core. Then, once the refiner's work was done, this outer shell was where a formation specialist would need to craft two sets of formations, one for storing memories and one for retrieving them.

To retrieve the memories, the second formation just needed to inject the core with energy. As this energy flowed through the jade, it was restructured to contain an echo of the original memories. Once shoved into a person’s soul, this energy would automatically condense into a memory construct that would provide a person with all the information the orb contained.

Memory orbs were rather large, larger than a person’s fist. The amorphous core, though, was rather small. It didn’t take much space to store a large amount of information. Instead, the reason for the memory orb’s large size was that it needed to contain space for these two formations.

After over a decade of practice, I was able to craft my first fully functional memory orbs. From there, my first thought was to mass-produce them, but as I looked at the orb, I had a thought.

Crafting countless memory orbs was a rather daunting task. Creating a perfectly formed amorphous core is both challenging and time-consuming, and carving two complex, intricate formations into an orb only a little larger than my fist took an insane amount of patience and diligence.

I wanted dozens of orbs. Hundreds. Thousands… If I could store every book, technique manual, and crafting skill I possessed in an orb, I would. However, creating so many orbs…

Yes, I had as much time as I needed, but the thought of spending an eternity crafting memory orbs wasn’t appealing. So, as I looked at the orb, I had an idea.

First, I wasn’t looking to store a lifetime of memories in an orb. I was simply looking to store a single cultivation technique. Sure, in some orbs, I wanted to store a large amount of crafting knowledge, but not in all of them. In most, I just wanted to store a single technique. So, I should be able to reduce the size of the amorphous core.

Second, I wasn’t actually recording any information in these orbs. I was purchasing the information from the system. So, why include the formation to record memories? I could just get rid of it. This would give me more room for the ‘read’ formation, and I wouldn't have to worry about the two formations interfering with one another.

After thinking through these changes, I got to work designing a new orb.

When I was finished, my final design could barely be called a ‘memory orb.’ It was a five-centimeter-tall jade slip.

While crafting the cores of these jade slips still required the expertise of an Artifact Emperor, they were much quicker and easier to mass produce than full memory orbs. So, in only a few years, I built up a massive reserve of them.

Of course, since true memory orbs still had their uses, and since I had time on my hands, I went ahead and crafted a few dozen full orbs as well, but those could now be reserved for actually storing memories. For singular techniques, I would now be using jade slips.

With each year that passed, the nervousness emanating from my karmic affinity steadily grew, but it was like a constant droning at the back of my mind. It was constant and unending, and all I could do was try my best to ignore it.

What was the point of a warning that I couldn’t do anything about?

At times, I considered ending this life. I knew that it wouldn’t do anything to change whatever was approaching, but with the points I earned, I could look at removing my affinity for karmic energy to end my suffering.

During this time, the progress of my clan in the sect had been almost entirely stagnant.

With the boosts I had purchased for the leadership council, they had shown remarkable improvements to all of their skills, but by this point, their paths through the sect had already been set. All it did was keep them from entering stagnation too early.

However, the progress of my clan in my storage space had been unexpectedly rapid.

When people first entered, they were greeted by an almost entire flat plane of dirt that was encircled by a thick stone wall. The only noticeable feature of the place was the gaping hole in its center, and whenever they looked up, they were greeted by a strange, alien sky.

At first, everyone relied on a handful of body cultivators to quickly build out an initial settlement.

Then, not long after this settlement was complete, Yan and LuYao produced a diagram from an improved sky formation. It was still far from perfect, but during the day, it would provide a blue sky that stretched to the tops of the encircling walls, and at night, it would imitate a starry sky.

The new buildings, the improved sky, and the fact that a few simple shrubs and grasses had taken root did a lot to improve people’s moods.

However, none of these was what really made a difference. No, that…

For roughly the first decade, the settlement in my soul space developed as I had expected. People did hard, manual labor to earn contribution points, they used these contribution points to improve their affinities, and then they used these improved affinities to cultivate during short vacations to the outside world.

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However, after the first decade of this routine, something changed.

Ever since people had first moved in, using qi properly in the space hadn’t been possible. Even though I was flooding the space with earth qi, the energy was almost entirely unusable. I had been able to create Qi Gathering Formations that pulled in environmental earth qi, shoved it into a spirit fire, and then used the output of the spirit fire to power other types of formations, but that was it.

After a dozen years, though, things changed.

While working in a field, a young man randomly tried to use the qi in his body to help him plow a field.

It worked.

After that, while people still couldn’t use the environmental qi, and while they still couldn’t cultivate inside the space, they found that they could cultivate outside, store the energy they cultivated, and then use this stored energy upon their return. A few Lords even began using their time outside to store as much compressed qi in their cores as possible so that they could then release it back into their dantians and use it in the storage space.

However, this was only true for earth cultivators. For some reason, earth qi had become useable, but only earth qi, not any other types.

Importantly, the moment this first boy found he could use his qi, before I even knew the specifics, the nervousness in my soul increased by an order of magnitude.

A few dozen years later, not long after I mastered the ability to create jade slips, another change occurred.

Ever since earth qi became usable, people had been trying to cultivate inside the space. It had never worked, but people simply couldn’t give up on the hope that they would be able to cultivate without having to go through the trouble of requesting a ‘vacation’ first.

Each day, a handful of people would try cultivating. It never worked. Until it did.

One day, a young girl, a random Martial Disciple 2, sat down to practice her cultivation technique. She wasn’t even truly trying to cultivate. She was just going through the motions.

Only a few minutes into this practice, though, she succeeded in pulling in a small, insubstantial thread of qi.

The moment she did, something rippled out from her.

Again, I didn’t know the specifics of what happened until later, but the moment this ripple touched the edge of my storage space, my eyes widened in horror.

The nervousness that I had been feeling for decades had transformed into full-blown panic.

I immediately shot to my feet and used every movement technique I possessed to run to find Yan, ShouLi, or anyone else.

Luckily, ShouLi and several others were in a meeting. They were all gathered in one place.

I looked at ShouLi with wide, frightened eyes. “Gather everyone! Now! Everyone, anyone. Get them all here. Get them into the world orb.”

No one moved. They were all too stunned by my outburst.

ShouLi looked at me with a concerned expression. “Ances— What’s wrong?”

I was shaking in fear. “Immediately!

This finally got people moving, and the assembled Kings and Emperors rushed off to fulfill my orders.

I walked outside and stood in a large, empty courtyard.

My foot began tapping impatiently.

I needed to do something. Gathering everyone would take too long, but I couldn’t leave. If I left, people wouldn’t know where to find me.

At that moment, the young girl in my storage space had found her mother and was shouting about being able to cultivate. While most people were skeptical, nearly everyone sat down and immediately tried cultivating themselves.

A few Masters were able to pull in small threads of energy. A few Disciples took a small step toward their next advancement.

With each person that began cultivating, a small ripple was released.

The panic in my soul increased.

I wanted to cry. There wasn’t enough time.

Whatever was going to happen was coming, and it wasn’t willing to wait.

“Everyone’s too spread out. They won’t make it in time. ShouLi, Liang, NiangBa, Mo, RuLan… They’ll all be lost…”

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, the courtyard around me rippled. Suddenly, it was filled with people. It was filled with the members of my clan.

This should have made me happy, but it only made my anxiety grow even further, and my state of mind wasn’t helped by the fact that thick black storm clouds had suddenly appeared high overhead.

ShouLi, who was among those who had appeared, ran over to ask what was happening, but before she could even open her mouth, a crash of thunder sent her stumbling to the ground.

ShouLi, a Martial Emperor and Rank 3 body cultivator was sent to the ground by mere thunder.

No one else around me fared any better.

Not knowing what else to do, I quickly pulled everyone into my storage space.

The moment they were gone, another group appeared. I didn’t even look who had arrived. I just pulled them into my storage space.

The third time this happened, the people who appeared included Yan, LuYao, and the rest of my Revered Elders. It also included Emperors Shen and Jin.

As soon as this group appeared, a thick bolt of black lightning struck the building behind me, reducing it to rubble.

I quickly tossed memory orbs to everyone, and seeing the situation, they hurriedly filled them.

Like me, almost everyone was in a state of panic. Almost everyone, but not Shen. He calmly surveyed the situation, walked up beside me, and handed me a storage bag.

“Fang, this contains that large formation stone that I’ve been working on. After a century of work, it’s complete. Take it. I’m sure you’ll get more use of it than I will.”

I couldn’t think. I just pulled the stone from the bag and shoved it into my storage space. I could figure out what it did later.

After this third group, no one else appeared in the courtyard.

Was everyone accounted for? I didn’t know. I had just pulled in everyone that had appeared. I didn’t know who they were, where they had come from, or why they had suddenly shown up. All I could do was act.

At this point, the world around me was a wreck. Thunder and lightning had reduced everything in the vicinity to rubble.

The state of the world inside me wasn’t much better. People had been pulled from who knows where while they were doing who knows what, and they had no understanding of what was happening.

I wanted to help. I wanted to do something, but before I could act, the situation changed.

After being impacted by a series of ripples, the boundary of my storage space started glowing.

After one final, large ripple, this glow collapsed, and the boundary turned pitch black.

Then, it burst alight in a brilliant rainbow that not only washed over everyone in my storage space but also lit up the entirety of the inner garden of my soul.

The moment this happened, I couldn’t move. I was locked in place.

I was not locked in place by the will-lock of a Ruler.

No.

Something turned its attention to me. Something impossibly powerful. Something… boundless.

A voice echoed through my very soul. “What are you?”

I couldn’t respond. I didn’t need to. After only a brief moment, the voice continued.

“I see. Interesting. No rules were broken.”

With that, the pressure holding me in place vanished. However, the storm clouds above only intensified, and a peel of thunder sent me to my knees.

Before I could even properly understand what was going on, a majestic figure appeared directly in from of me. It was wearing a red robe with golden embroidery that shone with its own internal light.

I had only seen this being once before, and that was a millennium ago, but I had never forgotten its appearance.

This was the incarnation of the Earthly Dao.

The incarnation didn’t speak. It didn’t even look at me. It simply thrust out a hand and impaled me through the heart.

As I fell to the ground and gasped out my final breath, I saw several thick bolts of black lightning rain down and eradicate the incarnation from existence.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Emperor Peak – 1 trillion credits awarded.

Total Credits: 1,009,647,270,706

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Affinities

Peak Four-Star – Earth, Metal, Lightning

Peak Five-Star – Wood, Fire, Water, Wind, Light, Dark

Low Five-Star – Karmic Energy

Low Six-Star – Space

Resistances

Mental Effects (Cultivation Techniques) – 25,000,000 credits

Mental Library

Capacity – Rank 6

Journal (with Mental Input) – Rank 6

Perfect Transcription – Rank 6

Touch Reading – Rank 6

Scribe – Rank 3

Comprehension Boosts

Cultivation:

Cultivation Techniques – 100 billion credits

Soul Techniques – 100 billion credits

Energy Control – 100 billion credits

Teaching – 100 million credits

Professions:

Alchemy – 100 billion credits

Formations – 100 billion credits

Herbalism – 10 billion credits

Refining – 100 billion credits

Martial – 1 billion credits

Social:

Reading Emotions (True) – 25,000,000 credits

Skills

Mastery of Cold Mountain Fire, Expanding Realms Fire

Memory Implantation — Rank 1

Talisman Artistry – Rank 4 (Continent-Wide Expert)

Soul Formation Concealment – Rank 6

Enhanced Soul Growth – 20,000 credits

Pill, Formation, Herb, Talisman, Demon Beast, Refined Item, Illusion, and Gu Appraisal – Rank 3 (Comprehensive, Detailed)

Technique Appraisal – Rank 3 (Earth)

Fire Seed Appraisal – Profound

Language (Western Han)