The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 338: Life 77, Age 84, Martial Sovereign 1

Ten years to the day after I first met with Grand Elder Zheng BoQin and took control of both the Nine Rivers Sect and the Nine Rivers Continent, the portal to the Central Continent opened unexpectedly, and an unfamiliar woman stepped through. At any other time of year, this event might have been able to slip by unnoticed, but since we were in the middle of preparing the year’s tribute, she was spotted immediately.

Following my standing orders, one of the guards immediately pulled out a communication formation to inform me of the development, and everyone backed off to avoid offending our visitor until I could properly assess the situation.

As soon as I was notified, I immediately created a portal and rushed through it. However, when I arrived, the woman was just casually standing around and inspecting the boxes destined for the clans on the Central Continent.

Upon examining her, I had a good idea of who I was dealing with.

Her elegant Rank 7 gold robes had been embroidered with silvery threads to create an unknown Rank 7 formation. Her body was small and lithe, and a check in energy vision proved that she wasn’t a body cultivator. However, the energy in her muscles spoke of someone blessed with enhanced strength. When she looked at me, her young, pretty face suggested that she was an innocent little girl, but her Sovereign-level cultivation base gave the lie to this impression.

As I approached, she cupped her fists to me, but she did not bow her head.

“Emissary Fang, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You may call me Emissary Yun.”

Cautiously, I returned her salute. “Greetings, Emissary Yun. How… may I help you today?”

She let out a soft giggle. “I think that you are the one in need of help, no?”

My pleasant smile faded. Were things about to come crashing to an end? Had we failed?

Emissary Yun waved a dismissive hand that split the air and formed a portal. “Let’s talk inside, alright?”

I lowered my head and followed her. If things were truly going to come to an end, I would fight to store away as many people as I could first. However, before I knew for certain that things were beyond repair, I would let events play out.

We appeared in the conference room atop the Hall of Elders, and Emissary Yun tapped the formation plate to ensure our privacy. Considering that, aside from her, all the Sovereigns on the continent were on my team, such privacy seemed a bit unnecessary, but I had no reason to object.

Emissary Yun took a seat and gestured for me to sit opposite her. “Emissary Fang, please, allow me to get straight to the point. The Nine Rivers Saint has judged your management of the Nine Rivers Continent to be exceptional. He is more than pleased with your performance, and he is ready to remove that pesky ‘Provisional’ qualifier from your title.”

My heart stopped beating for a moment, but… was this… good? Had the Saint decided to just… leave us alone? Could things really be that easy?

When Emissary Yun pulled a small Oath Stone from her belt pouch, my budding hope burned away and was replaced with a creeping dread.

The Emissary just tilted her head and smiled. “Are you prepared to take your Oath of Service?”

“That…”

The Emissary’s coy smile turned predatory. “Is something wrong, Emissary Fang?”

I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. I could try fighting, or I could try running away, but why not just try… talking?

“Is there a way that I can avoid the need to swear such an Oath?”

The Emissary clasped her hands together, and her grin expanded. “Normally, no. The Saint views Oaths as a necessary tool for managing his subordinates. However, predicting your concerns, and considering your achievements, he has decided to make you an offer.”

“I… understand.” And I did. I knew what she—what the Saint—wanted.

“Body Cultivation.” The Emissary’s clasped hands began rubbing together in greed. “Hand over a complete collection of your knowledge on body cultivation, and you will be allowed to retain your position as the Emissary for the Nine Rivers Continent without needing to swear an Oath. Though, if you wish to leave this place, you must swear the Oath before setting foot on the Central Continent. Also, if your clan is able to make any further breakthroughs, all relevant information must be submitted along with your yearly tribute.”

I lowered my eyes as I fell into deep thought.

Clearly, the Saint had sources of information on this continent that Ning ZeKun hadn’t been aware of. He knew what had happened to his Sovereigns, and he knew that our clan was studying body cultivation. Considering my previous discussion with Grand Elder Zheng BoQin, I was pretty certain I knew the source of this leak.

However, if the Saint was honestly offering this kind of deal…

Were there any downsides to handing over our knowledge of body cultivation? If the Saint or his people made breakthroughs of their own, it would limit our ability to gain new enlightenments, but that wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker…

I looked at Emissary Yun, reached into my inner world, and pulled out a stack of books that contained all the notes from ShouLi and the others. This stack also contained copies of the various techniques that I had created based on those ideas. “I agree.”

Emissary Yun cupped her hands and bowed her head ceremonially. “Then, congratulations, Emissary Fang.”

After the Emissary collected my notes and departed, I immediately got back to researching formations with Mo, Shen, and Du XiongMing.

Did we still need an anti-Soul Lamp formation? Hadn’t that meeting shown that it was unnecessary?

While the Saint may have been willing to let things slide after understanding the full truth of matters, I doubted that he would be so sanguine if he had to watch the Soul Lamps flicker out one after the other. To me, this meeting only drove home the importance of these formations. We needed them to delay information from reaching the Saint so that Grand Elder Zheng would have time to give him a full report.

Therefore, I continued to spend my days quietly researching and preparing for the future.

This was a bit different from what I had done in the past, though. This time, I was actively working as part of a team of experts. Sure, Mo would take several years off every now and then to spend time with RuLan, and sure, Shen took time off to go on escapades of his own, but Du XiongMing stuck around, at least.

As we continued our study of formations, decades slowly trickled by one after the other, and I hoarded all of the Sovereign-level energy that my clan generated. I didn’t want to waste this valuable resource. Instead, I stored it away in the dantians of TongBin’s assistants and cultivated using only the clan’s Emperor-level energy. This blocked any possibility of my ascension to Martial Spirit in this life, but I had already accepted this fact long ago.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Eventually, I turned 159. I was a Sovereign 5, and the radius of my inner world’s nascent Plane of Earth reached a bit over 1 kilometer, giving it a volume of about 3.5 cubic kilometers. When combined with Chang’an, this gave my inner world a total volume of slightly over 7 cubic kilometers. With only 3 more to go, I shifted the Expanding Realms Fire to begin working on the third and final plane that would comprise my Rank 1 Small World.

At this point, my Plane of Earth was a ‘Plane of Earth’ in name only. In actuality, it was nothing more than a massive, empty void. There was barely even any qi inside of it. However, that was about to change. I just needed the right tools to make it happen.

While there weren’t too many Profound-Rank fire seeds on the continent, nearly every Emperor-level force had at least one in their possession. As for Yellow-Rank seeds, dozens of them were scattered out amongst the continent’s various sects and clans.

Over the years, I had sent out several groups to gather up each and every one of these seeds.

None of the factions wanted to hand over their seeds, but the compensation that we were offering had been enough to convince several factions to do so. After that… While we didn’t steal any fire seeds, once word got out about what we were willing to pay for even the most worthless of Yellow-Rank seeds, several wars broke out, and this led to several more factions selling us fire seeds that they had ‘found.’

I wasn’t exactly enthused by the idea that my actions had led to so much bloodshed, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that wars were a constant in this world. Even if those people hadn’t died fighting over a fire seed, they would have likely died fighting over something else.

In any case, as a result of all these purchases, my stock of fire seeds had grown by an order of magnitude, and it was time to start putting them to use.

I grabbed all of the earth-element seeds and chucked them haphazardly onto my Plane of Earth. Then, I dumped a hoard of spirit stones onto each one. In total, there were 7 Yellow-Rank seeds, 3 Profound-Rank seeds, and 5 copies of the Earth-Rank Immutable Mountain spirit fire.

11 of the 15 piles of spirit stone slowly dissolved as the flames converted their energy into qi, medicinal energy, and various types of stone.

Seeing this, I pulled the spirit stones away from the fires that weren’t using them, headed out into the wilderness, gathered up several tons of loose rock, and tossed them onto the dormant fires. The moment these random rocks and stones touched them, the four dormant fires sprang to life and burned with a vengeance, transforming loose rubble into copious amounts of wu.

As energy circulated throughout the Plane of Earth, it passed through other fire seeds and was converted into different forms. Certain fires would burn energy to grow stones, other fires would burn those stones into wu, and others still would burn that wu into qi.

As I watched the energies and stones circulate and transform, I didn’t have any clue what effect this might have on my world’s Laws, but there was only one thought in my mind: I needed more spirit stones.

I wanted to snatch up all the spirit stones on the continent and keep them for myself, but I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to destroy this continent just to fuel the growth of my inner world. Snatching all the spirit fires had already pushed things a bit too far.

Still… I needed to provide my world with ample energy, and there was a perfectly reasonable way for me to do so.

Spirit stones were not natural to the Nine Rivers Continent. Every stone that existed here had come from the Central Continent. Each year, when the tribute was paid, the clans on the Central Continent would, in return, supply the Nine Rivers Continent with a shipment of spirit stones.

As I was the Emissary and as the members of my clan were the ones facilitating these tributes, I felt more than justified in claiming 25% of the spirit stones as my own. I could have taken more, but I didn’t want to be too greedy. This was more than enough to kickstart a complex cycle of growth and development within my Plane of Earth.

As time went on, I noticed that the exact type of rock that a seed created would shift based on the type of energy it was provided. Even when just fed qi, the fires produced slight variations based on which of the other fires had produced that qi. I could only hope that this would help my world develop new and unique Laws of Earth.

By the age of 229, I had reached Peak Sovereign, and my cultivation journey had come to an end. However, this didn’t mean that I was done advancing entirely. I just had to advance in other ways.

I felt a shudder in my soul, and the growth of my inner world slammed to a halt. It had reached its maximum size as a Rank 1 Small World. It was time for it to ascend.

My world’s second element was to be wood. While the thought of creating a Plane of Fire was intriguing, if I wanted to grow a grove of trees that could serve as my sect’s karmic energy battery, wood was what I needed.

So, I tossed all my wood-element fire seeds into this new, empty plane and, again, dumped a pile of spirit stones onto them. Then, I piled the place full of random mosses, trees, grasses, and herbs. Without either light or soil, I wasn’t sure if any of these plants would be able to survive, but I wanted to try out a plane of pure wood before monkeying around with other elements like earth or light.

Finally, since my inner world wasn’t able to grow any larger, I pulled out the Expanding Realms Fire, replaced it with the Eternal Grove Fire, and directed all the vital energy it created into my new Plane of Wood. Using a fire that generated wood qi might have been better, but considering that my main concern was keeping those plants alive, pumping the place full of vital energy seemed like the best choice.

Once this fire was in place, I felt an old, familiar twinge from my affinity for karmic energy. It wasn’t nearly anywhere near as serious as it had been in the past, but it signaled that my world was on the path to evolution.

14 years later, Du XiongMing passed away. Ascending to Sovereign had given him an extra century, but that was all. After all the time we had spent together in recent decades, I was sorry to see him go, but I would see him again in only a few years.

His death, though, reminded me of what was coming, and I made more of an effort to take breaks to spend time with Mo and the others.

34 years later, I contacted the new head of my clan’s leadership council and put out an immediate order. Everyone who could do so needed to retreat into my inner world as soon as possible. While I didn’t feel anything close to the level of urgency that I had when my world had advanced the first time, I still wanted my people safely tucked away in case the worst happened.

Over the next several days, I felt a constant tugging on my soul, but my world didn’t advance. During this brief time, I was able to gather up millions of people, but with how things had expanded over the years, there were still millions more who hadn’t yet arrived.

It was time, though. I couldn’t put the advancement off any longer.

I focused on my inner world and sent a message to a young Disciple who cultivated wood qi.

Now.

He began cultivating.

Ripples spread out from him and impacted the walls of my inner world. Then, others began to cultivate, and more ripples were created.

Finally…

Thick black clouds suddenly appeared and wrapped my inner world in darkness. I couldn’t see inside, and I had no way to contact the people who had been trapped in there.

Normally, I used my ‘intent’ to view the world, but that wasn’t working. I tried to create an avatar inside, but I couldn’t lock onto a place to create it. In desperation, I tried sending a tendril of my soul into the world, but when it touched the black storm clouds, a bolt of lightning shot out and shattered it.

The damage this caused to my soul was minimal, but the message was clear: Do not interfere.

I looked into my soul and studied the world from the outside. Its once pearlescent glow was gone. Instead, the world looked like little more than a cloudy marble.

What had happened? What had gone wrong?

All my inquiries to the System were met with the standard response: Cost not possible to calculate at this time.

All I could do was wait.

Several days passed, and I began to get seriously worried. The people inside were entirely dependent upon a supply of outside food to survive, and I had just shoved millions of people into the world. What would they eat?

Thankfully, on the tenth day, my inner world lit up with a brilliant light that bathed my soul in its radiance. When this light faded, the clouds that shrouded my vision dissipated, and I was finally able to see into the world once more.

Chang’an looked… The entire place was covered in a thick layer of broken trees and rotting vegetation, several people showed signs of injury, and all of the buildings had gaping holes in them, but that was about it. No dead bodies were lying about, and while nearly everyone was complaining, they all seemed to be in relatively good health. The city was… fine.

As for the other planes, the Plane of Earth didn’t look much different from the way it always had. Large boulders and piles of stone were strewn about everywhere, and there were no signs of life, but that was normal. The only noticeable difference was that there were large, desiccated plants buried under the piles of rubble.

However, on this plane, new stones were constantly being created, and old ones were constantly being destroyed, causing stones to flow from one spirit fire to another. Because of this, in a month or so, those desiccated plants would be consumed by fire, and there would be nothing left of them but wu.

The Plane of Wood, though, was a different story. Gigantic, ugly plants that looked like large, green tumors had taken up residence in the place, and their roots had burrowed throughout the entire realm. Nearly all the ‘local’ vegetation had been consumed, and these foreign ‘invaders’ were surrounding the fire seeds and consuming all the energy they released. If this were allowed to continue, then all the qi, wu, and vital energy on the plane would be locked away in these invasive plants.

I had questions. A lot of questions. However, before going to look for answers, I first needed to take care of all the starving people in Chang’an.

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