The Undying Immortal System

After returning to my small house, I sat down to wait. I wasn’t sure exactly how long my conversations with the Earthly Dao, my leadership council, and my Revered Elders had taken, but I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long.

So, I just sat and thought through my plans.

The grand formation under Rosehill had been formed from four concentric rings. The outermost ring was a Rank 4 formation, and the innermost ring was a Rank 7 formation. The details of the Rank 7 formation had been hidden from me, but I had recorded the Rank 4 formation down in my journal, and I had been studying it off and on for several years now. I didn’t understand it completely, but I had a fairly good idea of what its purpose was.

The Rank 4 formation was blocking Lords from entering the Wastes. Only Lords. It wasn’t powerful enough to affect any higher-level cultivators. I wasn’t entirely sure if the inner formations would serve as backups, but I felt rather confident that if I could destroy that outermost ring, then people in the Wastes would be allowed to ascend to Martial Lord. From there, with each successive ring, Kings, Emperors, and Sovereigns would be allowed.

This last part was nothing but a mere supposition, but it made sense to me. It felt like that was the intention of the person who had originally constructed this formation.

From what I had seen, there were five locations in the Wastes that contained formations. I had already seen the one under Rosehill, and the locations of the ones under Mount Jiang and the Verdant Fields Sect were rather obvious. As for the one under the Twin Mountains Sect, it was almost certainly under one of the mountains.

That just left the formation under the Su Clan.

I had no idea where this last formation might be hiding. My guess was that it would contain a fire seed that produced copious amounts of metal and wood, but Dragon Gate City was surrounded by forested mountains. The formation could be hiding anywhere.

I had a clue, though. Small patches of herbs had been growing around the Rosehill formation. One of those herbs had been the Metal Dragon’s Tongue Fruit. The Su Clan had been able to produce an Earth Dragon’s Tongue Fruit. This suggested that they knew the location of the formation, and I just needed to extract it from them.

So, while I could try storming the Su Clan and taking what I wanted by force, I decided to approach the situation from a different direction. I would take over the Su Clan from within. Then, with Bao, Cao, and SuYin controlling the Verdant Fields Sect and the Twin Mountains Sect, we would have complete control of the Wastes, and ideally, it would all be done without any outside interference. From there, we could work on slowly building up an empire capable of rivaling anyone on the continent.

These were big plans, but I could only take them one step at a time.

As I thought about this, the ‘first step’ finally arrived.

A middle-aged man dressed in dark brown robes opened my door and ushered me outside.

It was time to have my affinities tested.

I walked in front of the elder at the affinity testing orb, and he gave me his normal smile filled with false pleasantness.

“What is your name?”

“Su Fang.”

“Place your hand on the orb and channel your qi into it.”

I casually lifted my right hand and did as ordered.

From my past life in the Su Clan, I had a fairly good understanding of how the clan chose its ‘elites.’ It wasn’t skills, affinities, or blessings that the elders cared about. It was a person’s background. As a poor orphan from a distant branch family, the chances that I would be chosen were nearly zero. So, if I wanted to catch the elder’s attention, I had to shine brighter than anyone else.

As I channeled the few drops of qi my body contained into the orb, I deftly manipulated my acupoints to alter the affinities that the orb would display.

At first, the orb showed nothing but a kaleidoscope of rainbow lines, but just as the elder was about to signal me to stop, I increased the intensity of my qi.

Suddenly, a dull copper ingot appeared in the middle of the orb, and the elder’s eyes widened in shock. When that ingot brightened not once, but twice, he took a step backward. When the ingot brightened a third time and then dimmed to a dull bronze, he froze stock still. When it then proceeded to brighten not once, but twice, he stopped breathing.

At this point, my qi was completely depleted, and my connection with the orb broke, so I dropped my hand to the side.

The elder took several seconds to compose himself.

“Me… Metal affinity. High… High… six-star…”

The elder seemed a bit too shaken up. Had I gone too far?

The elder turned and looked at YuanFei who was sitting at the back of the room. YuanFei had a look of deep interest on his face, but he didn’t speak. He just waved for the elder to continue.

The elder turned back to me and spoke in a shaky voice.

“What… what can you tell us about the blessing you have received?”

If this had been the past, I might have mentioned something related to profession or martial skills, but now, I knew better. I knew what I needed to say if I wanted to be given a position of importance in the clan.

“My blessing has given me a deep understanding of governance. I feel as if I possess knowledge that one could only gain from several lifetimes spent as a city lord.”

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As I said this, the truth stone on the elder’s right hand remained a bright white, but he didn’t even look at it. He was in too much shock.

“That… that can be considered an exceptional blessing. The Heavenly Dao has truly blessed you today, child.”

He turned around and looked at YuanFei once more and received a nod in reply.

The elder took a deep breath, puffed up his chest, and looked down at me with as much regality as he could feign.

“Su Fang, I know your life up to this point has been difficult, but we all have challenges we must face. While you have had to struggle, know that ever since I first saw you as a baby, I knew that you would become something special one day. I believe it is finally time.” He smiled with as much false sincerity as he could muster. “It is time for you to meet your father.”

The elder looked over my shoulder at the servant who had been waiting there.

“Take little Fang to Grandmaster YuanKong’s residence. Let him rest there until his father is ready to see him.”

As the elder lifted his hand to dismiss the servant, I couldn’t help but notice that the truth stone in his ring had turned completely black.

The servant who had been somewhat haughty and disrespectful earlier had completely changed. After witnessing both my affinity test and the elder’s reaction, he had become far more obsequious as he guided me to my new home.

As we walked through the compound, he did his best to offer explanations for each door we passed.

“We are in the Training Quarter. Everything here is related to training. This is the door to one of the private practice yards the elite disciples use for training.”

I raised my chin in acceptance of the answer, and we continued walking forward.

My guide showed me several more training yards, a library, a few areas for learning formations, and various other training-related buildings. While I had spent a lot of time in this compound, it had been several decades since I was last here, and even then, I didn’t spend much time wandering around the place, so I was appreciative of the guided tour.

Eventually, we reached a crossroads where a wide boulevard cut through the street that we had been walking down.

The servant gestured to our right. “That is the path to the complex’s front gate. The buildings there are for entertaining guests.”

He gestured to our left. “That path leads to the residences of the compound's leaders. They are the seniors overseeing each new disciple’s testing. Sitting in the back of the room was Su YuanFei, the eldest son of the patriarch. The senior guiding the testing was Su HuaLong, the Second Elder.”

I couldn’t help but smile at this. I didn’t have much of an impression of Su HuaLong, but I knew YuanFei very well. When I first met him, he helped Rudy torture me to death. More recently, while we were living on Mount Jiang, I saved his life and offered him my protection. In return, he instigated a coup against me. We were good old friends.

The servant continued guiding us straight ahead.

“This area contains the residences for our Grandmasters, Masters, and elite Disciples.”

As each residence had a sign out front labeling who lived within, I no longer had to rely on my guide for such knowledge.

Eventually, after passing a dozen doors labeled with the names of random Su Clan scions, we reached our destination, the home of Su YuanKong, the third son of the Su Clan’s current Patriarch. Seeing this name made me want to shake my head, but I held it in.

In a past life, YuanKong tried to kill me when I defeated his disciple. Later, he sided with his second brother, YuanFeng, when YuanFeng killed his father and usurped the position of clan Patriarch. Then, he acted as the MC during the farce of an alchemy competition against Rudy. While I wasn’t quite as good of ‘friends’ with YuanKong as I was with his eldest brother, we did have our share of history together.

My guide led me inside, and I saw what passed for a palace built for the son of the Patriarch of the clan that dominated the Western Wastes.

Su YuanKong’s courtyard was rather spartan. There was no greenery, and the entire area was paved with gray bricks. Aside from the palace itself, the only items of note were a few wooden devices designed for martial arts training. The palace itself was well-built and had red walls with white and brown accents. For a mortal dwelling, it would have been nice, but for a Grandmaster…

The servant guided me into the front room where a sitting area with four chairs around a small table had been arranged. After seating me, he went to prepare some tea.

Left alone, I was a little annoyed. The Second Elder hadn’t assigned me a cultivation technique, so I didn’t have anything to do. Of course, I didn’t need a technique from the clan, and I wouldn’t use it even if they had given me one, but without having been given one, cultivating would have been far too suspicious.

With no better option, I sat and simply meditated as I looked around my inner world and watched my clan work.

After several hours of waiting, the front door of the house opened, and a familiar figure walked inside.

YuanKong looked me up and down with a pleased expression on his face.

“Little Fang… It’s… It’s so good to see you again after all this time. I thought we had lost you, but the Heavens saved you.”

I had no idea how to respond to that. My mouth just dropped open slightly in shock.

YuanKong didn’t seem to mind. He rushed forward and hugged me.

“Don’t worry, son. Now that you’re here, I can ensure your protection. We won’t have to worry about losing each other ever again.” He paused his speech and turned away, trying to hide his face. “It’s just… It’s a pity that your mother can’t be here with us.”

It was clear he wanted me to ask, so I did my best to add a hitch to my voice and did as he wanted.

“My… my mother? I have a mother?”

He turned back to face me with a pleading look. “No, Fang. Don’t ask about her. Your mother is… she’s part of a powerful family. If they find out that you survived, they will do everything in their power to end your life. Only by becoming stronger and strengthening the clan can we become worthy of our connection to her family.”

I put on my best sad face and looked at the ground. “I understand.”

YuanKong’s acting skills were… impressive. He almost seemed to actually believe every word he was saying. If this had been my first life in the clan, I almost certainly would have believed him.

YuanKong reached into his robe and pulled out a thin brown book.

“Fang, this is our family’s secret technique. It is a Mid-Profound cultivation technique for metal qi. If you… If you want to see your mother, you need to gather strength. This will make it possible for you to do so. No one in the entire clan has had the talent needed to cultivate this technique for centuries. With your affinity, you may have a chance.”

I nodded at him. “I understand, father.”

YuanKong smiled when I called him that.

“Let me show you to a cultivation room. Carefully study this technique before you begin cultivating it. The first step will be to create a qi filter. You need to do this as perfectly as possible so that you do not absorb any impurities. You must not allow your foundations to become corrupted.”

I hesitated. I felt that I should just agree to not give the game away, but I felt the urge to learn more about the way the Su Clan treated its elites.

“You aren’t going to teach me? How can I learn to cultivate without guidance?”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, son. Your father is incompetent. I can barely understand that scroll myself. You will need to do your best to learn on your own.”

I gripped the man’s shoulder in a show of support. “I understand father, your son will not fail you in this.”

YuanKong led me to the back right corner of the house and showed me a small, windowless room that contained nothing but a mundane cultivation mat. Across from it, there was a rather nice bedroom which, on the bright side, had a rather comfortable-looking bedroll.

“Take your time. When you are tired, sleep. When you are hungry, a servant will bring you food.” He gestured to a door that led outside. “As one of the clan’s new elites, there will be a competition at the end of the month where you may be challenged for your position. Once you have a grasp on the basics of cultivation, I will help you train so that you will be prepared for this.”

I bowed my head. “Of course, father. I understand.”

With that, YuanKong departed and left me alone to my own devices.

I wanted to slap the man. Did anyone really think I would believe this nonsense? What were they trying to pull?

Still, I would just let it all play out. Being the Patriarch’s grandson should grant me a bit more freedom, and hopefully, it would allow me to wrest control of the Su Clan even sooner than I had hoped.