The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 349: Life 91, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

Upon waking up in my tiny house, I took a moment to decompress, then got to work. Suliang JueXin’s takeover of Chang’an signified a fresh start for the Su Clan, but that’s all it was, a start. If we wanted to make the clan everything that I knew it could become, then there was still a lot of work ahead of us.

Before anything else, I first used the Expanding Realms Fire to create a vault beneath Chang’an that was only connected to the main cylinder by a thin, 1-centimeter-wide tunnel. For added security, halfway down this tunnel, I expanded it to be just large enough to fit the sheet of Rank 8 metal that I had acquired back when I was in the Nine Rivers Sect. During the fight with that Rank 5 boar, I had shown JueXin and his people one of my underground storage areas, and I needed to get the rest cleaned out before anyone got any smart ideas.

Once this was taken care of, I decided to make good use of some of my credits:

Permanently upgrade of all my basic elemental affinities to high three-star: 250 trillion.

Upgrade of all my existing comprehensions to 20 trillion credits: 157.699 trillion.

Deletion of previously purchased System-derived knowledge of talisman artistry: 50 billion.

Add a new talisman artistry comprehension boost: 20 trillion.

Upgrade of my ability to resist the mental effects of cultivation techniques: 20 trillion.

Upgrade of my technique appraisal ability to Rank 6: 50 trillion.

Upgrade of all other appraisal abilities to Rank 5: 7 trillion.

Purchase confirmed. Cost 504.7 trillion credits.

Next, I implemented a few changes to my inner world.

While Suliang JueXin respected me as his clan’s Ancestor, over time, that respect would fade. Even if JueXin himself remembered what I had done, as generations passed, I would be forgotten. So, as Emperor Li had taught me, I needed to make my presence known at all times.

I decided to do this via the clan’s technique libraries.

First, I removed all of the existing libraries. Then, I built three new ones—one on each of the core’s three levels. Within each of these libraries, I stored books and manuals containing every technique in my mental library. I also spent a trillion credits copying several of the most important techniques into jade slips.

Once this was done, I then created a plaza at the entrances to each library that held several larger-than-life statues.

One statue was labeled ‘Ancestor Su’ and showcased my appearance as a withered old man. To the left of my statue were statues of Emperor Li and Yan, labeled ‘Ancestor Li’ and ‘Ancestor Zhuge,’ respectively. To the right of my statue, I place statues of Shen and ZeKun that were labeled ‘Ancestor Jiu’ and ‘Ancestor Ning.’

A formation in each plaza forced anyone who wanted to enter the library to first bow and pay respect to their Ancestor.

I wanted this library to help the people in my inner world grow stronger, but I didn’t want them to rely too much on the information contained within the jade slips. So, I laid down a set of rules to limit their use. A person would only be allowed to access the jade slip repository a single time. If they did so as a Disciple, then they would be allowed to access slips up to the Master level, but no further. If they did so as a Master, then they could only access slips up to the Grandmaster level.

By the time this was all set up, it was time for me to shuffle people around to different planes of my inner world. Many who had gone to Chang’an didn’t like the idea of having to fight against demon beasts, and many who had gone to the Plane of Dark Woody Earth wanted to return to the comfort of Chang’an’s prebuilt city.

Not a single person was interested in being sent to the Plane of Wood, but only a few who had gone there initially were willing to leave.

After getting all of this sorted out, I was ready for a break. So, I met up with Murong NaYun, and he took me on a tour of the places that he had visited in his youth. As we explored, he taught me everything he knew about talismans, and I taught him everything I knew about formations. While the two had many surface-level similarities, the differences were far greater than I had expected.

During this time, I kept an eye on the clans in my inner world.

The Su Clan remained in charge of Chang’an, but it was no longer as dominant as it had been in the past. Sushou BaHu’s uprising had caused a significant decline in the Su Clan’s population, and it was now not much larger than any of the other clans. The others were smart enough not to try overthrowing the Su Clan, but they did push for more representation within Chang’an’s leadership.

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While I could have stepped in to oppose this, I didn’t. The development of Chang’an had been reset, and the old power structures no longer existed. JueXin needed to build something new, and pulling in the other clans was a solid step toward making that happen.

What had caused my Su Clan to decline and become so much like the original Su Clan? With memory orbs, jade slips, and Legacy Orbs, they should have been able to develop in the most optimal way possible. Yet, even as their skills and cultivation bases advanced, their attitudes and culture had regressed.

In part, this could be explained by the fact that, with every new life, the clan was sent to mingle with members from the original Su Clan. Even if my people disdained the attitudes of the original clan, over time, they would still become infected by them.

More importantly, though, neither my clan nor the original Su Clan ever faced any real challenges. Both clans were masters of their domain. For the original clan, no one outside the Wastes bothered them. For my clan, no one on the entire continent could bother them. This had caused both clans to lapse into a state of preserving the power that they had instead of fighting for more.

This was something that I had learned from Emperor Li. If a keeper wanted to create a powerful gu, then they needed to consistently pressure them. Letting a gu wallow in an Eclosion Pot without any challenges didn’t do any good.

In the past, I had failed—both because I didn’t know what to do and because I didn’t have the resources to do it. But now, with Emperor Li’s lessons drilled into me and half a dozen planes filled with vicious beasts, I could provide the external pressure that my clan needed. Similarly, by allowing the other clans to assume positions within Chang’an’s leadership, I would be providing them with a form of internal pressure.

New problems would arise—they always did—but with time and effort, we would be able to meet them.

As I wandered the world with Murong NaYun, years came and went. By raising him to Martial Emperor, I had been able to grant him a few extra centuries, but eventually, his time ran out, and I was left to wander the world alone.

Every few decades, I opened a few portals between Chang’an and the other planes to let the demon beasts invade. At first, Chang’an was able to fight them off with ease, but over time, JueXin and the other Rulers passed away, and there was no karmic energy to raise new ones. The demon beasts, in contrast, were able to advance to Rank 4 simply by eating the flesh of cultivators, so as Chang’an weakened, the beasts grew stronger.

Finally, when the world was at its breaking point, I constructed a massive plaque at the center of the plaza in front of the library on Chang’an’s upper layer. It explained that once every 50 years, each clan could select one person to be imbued with enough karmic energy to ascend to the Ruler Tier. Importantly, though, thousands of people would need to be present and show their respect to their clan’s Ancestor for this ceremony to be effective.

This would be a bit troublesome as I would need to pull these people outside–into an illusion–for them to be able to ascend to Martial Lord, but it would hopefully cement the positions of me and the others as the true Ancestors of our clans.

Eventually, I decided to ask a question that I had been holding back for far too long. I had asked it once before, but I hadn’t gotten an answer. Now, I knew that I would.

“System, how much would it cost for you to teleport me to the nearest town on the Central Continent at the start of my next life?”

Cost 10,000,000,000,060 credits.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that number. It was far too close to a perfect 10 trillion to be random, and I was almost certain that I knew why that was.

“Purchase.”

Purchase confirmed.

Finally, at 700 years old, I did something new. Something that I had never done before. I died a natural death.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Sovereign Peak: 100 trillion credits awarded.

You died at Peak of Rank 7 in Body Cultivation: 100 trillion credits awarded.

Total Credits: 237,985,612,449,913

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Complete Status Page

Rank 4 Small World: 2,033/10,000 km3 (Earth, Wood, Fire, Dark)

Affinities

High Three-Star: Earth, Metal, Water, Fire, Wood

Low Three-Star: Lightning, Wind, Light, Dark

Peak Four-Star: Karmic Energy

Peak Five-Star: Space

Resistances

Mental Effects (Cultivation Techniques): 20 trillion credits

Mental Library

Capacity: Rank 8

Journal (with Mental Input): Rank 8

Perfect Transcription: Rank 8

Touch Reading: Rank 8

Scribe: Rank 8

Comprehension Boosts

Cultivation:

Cultivation Techniques: 20 trillion credits

Body Cultivation: 20 trillion credits

Soul Techniques: 20 trillion credits

Energy Control: 20 trillion credits

Teaching: 20 trillion credits

Professions:

Alchemy: 20 trillion credits

Formations: 20 trillion credits

Herbalism: 20 trillion credits

Refining: 20 trillion credits

Beast Taming: 20 trillion credits

Gu Keeping: 20 trillion credits

Illusions: 20 trillion credits

Talismans: 20 trillion credits

Martial: 20 trillion credits

Social:

Reading Emotions (True): 20 trillion credits

Skills

Mastery of Cold Mountain Fire, Expanding Realms Fire (seed)

Mastery of Immutable Mountain Fire, Eternal Grove Fire (spirit fire)

Memory Implantation: Rank 1

Soul Formation Concealment: Rank 7

Enhanced Soul Growth: 20,000 credits

Pill, Formation, Herb, Talisman, Demon Beast, Refined Item, Illusion, and Gu Appraisal: Rank 5 (Comprehensive, Detailed)

Technique Appraisal: Rank 6 (Earth)

Fire Seed Appraisal: Profound

Language (Western Han)

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End of Volume 5

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