The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 351: Life 92, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

Taimoor first led me to an office on the Hall of the Herb Lord’s second floor, where a middle-aged man with charcoal-black skin and long black hair was reviewing a pile of paperwork.

Taimoor gave this man a martial salute. “Manager Ulagan, a new Disciple has requested a position as a servant-alchemist.”

The manager didn’t even look up from the paperwork that he was reviewing. “Name?”

I stepped forward and cupped my fists. “Su Fang.”

The manager reached to his side and jotted this down on an empty form. “Affinity?”

Taimoor answered for me, “Zero.”

“Experience?”

I didn’t see any truth stones lying about, but I needed to be careful here. “I have yet to begin practicing alchemy.”

The manager let out a soft snort and jotted down ‘unknown.’ “Blessing?”

Just as I was about to open my mouth, he cut me off. “Just tell me if your blessing will help you with alchemy. Does it give you any special skills?”

“It… I do not have any special skills that will directly assist me with alchemy. Mostly, it has given me information and has boosted my comprehension.”

The manager scribbled down a few words on the form, then handed me a jade token. “Place a drop of blood on this and attach it to your waist. It will keep a record of your contributions. Welcome to the Hall of the Herb Lord.”

Next, Taimoor took me to another office on the second floor where a green-skinned elder was hunched over a desk, reading a thick tome. Behind her, there were several shelves filled with storage bags.

Taimoor approached this old woman, cupped his fists, and bowed. “Elder Bilguun, a new Disciple desires to walk the path of an alchemist.”

The elder nodded and looked up at me. “Which flavor of qi do you wish to experience?”

I wanted to raise an eyebrow at this. Aside from the wording, I was a little surprised that she would even ask. On the Nine Rivers Continent, almost every alchemist cultivated fire qi by default.

I considered going with something a touch exotic, but I didn’t see any reason not to start with the more traditional path. “Fire qi.”

She bobbed her head. “A sensible starting point.”

Elder Bilguun turned around, pulled a scroll from one of the storage bags, then placed it on the desk between us. “Your tuition entitles you to one Low-Yellow cultivation technique. If you master it, then you will be able to purchase a better one—up to a Peak-Yellow. If you are able to become an apprentice, then you will be allowed to purchase Profound techniques. Full alchemists are allowed to purchase Earth-Rank techniques. How far you progress along this path will depend on you—on your effort, and on your latent talent. If you find that your fire talent is lacking, then you will need to come back and purchase a technique of a different element.”

I bowed as I accepted the technique. “Thank you for your guidance, Elder.”

After leaving the library, Taimoor brought me to the final room on the second floor, a large hall that contained several benches made from living shrubberies.

When we arrived, this hall was already full of people. A dozen young men and women were sitting around on the room’s benches, and all of them were dressed in the fine silk robes of nobles.

The walls of this room were lined with reception desks, but Taimoor didn’t walk me over to any of them. He just waved a hand to introduce the place. “This is the Assignment Hall. You can come here to accept tasks, earn contribution points, and continue down your path.”

He gestured toward one of the attendants. “That’s the desk for the servant-alchemists. That’s where you need to go to check which jobs are available and report the completion of your tasks.”

I looked around at everyone on the benches. “Is there a reason people are just waiting here?”

Taimoor nodded. “Yes. If you wish to accept a task immediately, there will almost always be one available. But those are mostly drudge work, such as restocking herbs and cleaning cauldrons. The people here are waiting for the chance to assist an alchemist directly. Alchemists will usually just come by and grab whoever’s available, without posting a task.”

This seemed… strange. Why would an alchemist need the help of an untrained servant? Even if they were trained, what was the point? Also, why waste time just sitting around? Why not spend this time practicing?

“Taimoor, are we allowed to purchase basic herbs to practice with?”

He furrowed his brow. “Of course. Don’t expect to receive any discounts, but the attendants will sell you batches of basic training herbs. You can also just go to the shop and buy herbs like anyone else.”

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“Then…” I waved a hand at the people seated in front of us. “Why are they here? Why aren’t they off practicing? Isn’t this a waste of time?”

Hearing my question, one of the nearby youths let out a snort, but he didn’t deign to answer my question. Instead, it was Taimoor who explained.

“First, it’s a matter of cost. If you just try to start concocting pills directly, you can quickly burn through a mountain of gold with nothing to show for it. Even most wealthy families can’t afford such an expenditure.”

“But…” I wanted to explain—That’s how I had learned, and that’s how everyone I had ever spoken to had learned. We had used blue peonies to concoct mounds of basic Qi Gathering Powder. This wouldn’t make a person rich, but it was at least profitable. Explaining this would be difficult, however, so I could only nod my head in acceptance. “I… see.”

Taimoor smiled at my response. “More than that, working with a skilled alchemist is considered the best way to raise your affinity. Concocting failed pills will help, sure, but assisting in the creation of a successful pill is far more effective. Even if you waste dozens of gold on herbs, you still won’t gain nearly as much as someone who assists in the creation of a single high-quality pill.”

“But—” Again, I had to catch myself. This talk of affinities—it wasn’t… right. A person couldn’t raise their affinities just by practicing, could they? Either the people here were lying, or the Laws of this continent had changed things.

In the end, I could only nod in quiet acceptance. Asking too many questions would give away too much information.

Finally, Taimoor took me downstairs and out an exit that led to an alleyway behind the hall. From there, he led me through a series of dingy passages, to the servant’s dormitory, and showed me to my room. Then, he left.

As long as I continued paying the Hall its 10 gold a month, I would have a room, and I would be able to accept tasks on the second floor, but I didn’t have any set obligations. As long as I paid my dues, I could simply lounge around all day if I wanted to. My time was my own.

This setup seemed like it had been designed to milk money from the scions of wealthy families. Such children would come to the Hall, pay extortionate fees, and end up learning absolutely nothing. It felt like a complete scam. freewēbnoveℓ.com

For me, however, it was exactly what I needed.

I had an endless supply of gold to throw around, and I didn’t actually need the Hall to teach me anything. I just needed to use them to launder my preexisting skills while learning more about this new continent.

And, learning I was. The only problem was that much of what I was learning was both concerning and confusing.

“System,” I subvocalized, “for this conversation, automatically purchase any answers that cost less than a billion credits. How much to upgrade or alter my fire affinity so that it will be recognized by the Hall’s affinity testing orb?”

Processing… Cost cannot be calculated at this time.

“I… see. How much to calculate the cost?”

Processing… Cost 100,000 shards.

“Wha—” That price didn’t make any sense. Something was wrong.

“Okay… System, how much to… how much to know why the testing orb didn’t register my affinity?”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1,000 credits.

Specified affinity testing orb is incapable of measuring a person’s fire affinity.

I nodded silently. That… They had different orbs here. That was good to know. However…

“What affinities does it measure?”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 100,000 credits.

Specified affinity testing orb measures a person’s alchemy affinity.

My eyes widened in shock. Was that even possible?

“How much to permanently raise my alchemy affinity to low nine-star?”

Cost 1,000 credits.

The same as affinities for the secondary elements. So, I could purchase up to a low three-star affinity.

Did I want to, though? What if these people were telling the truth? What if I could raise my affinities without essence? I needed to test this—both to know if it was true, and to know how long raising an affinity might take.

“That’s all for now, System.”

Transaction complete. 237,965,112,268,273 credits remaining.

Over the next month, I spent my time doing menial tasks around the Hall of the Herb Lord. I could have used this time to concoct pills, but I wanted to see if these basic tasks would actually help me raise my affinity.

Most of these tasks were about what I had expected, but one stood out—cleaning the dregs from the bottom of pill furnaces.

Back on Nine Rivers, I had never even heard of ‘dregs.’ When concocting a pill, everything was either burned up or condensed into a pill. Here, however, instead of evaporating, an herb’s physical shell would slough off and fall to the bottom of the furnace. Once the concoction process was finished, someone would then need to scrape out these dregs and dispose of them.

It was dirty, messy work, and it was made all the dirtier by the fact that a few of the servants would swallow as many of the dregs as they could stomach. They were bitter, nasty things, and eating them often resulted in people becoming violently ill, but consuming alchemical dregs was considered a surefire way to boost one’s affinity.

Only the most desperate of the servants indulged in this practice, though, and after trying it once myself, I didn’t feel the need to try it ever again. Yes, I wanted to find new ways to raise my affinities, but… some things just weren’t worth it.

At the end of the month, all the alchemy servants were gathered for a lesson on the Hall’s tenth floor.

The lecture that we had been assigned to had fifty workbenches that were laid out in a grid-like pattern. But when I entered, I saw that nearly all of the three dozen young men and women who had already arrived were huddled in one of three large groups.

A few of these people looked like they could have been from the Nine Rivers, but most had either the green or bark-like skin that I had only seen from people in the Hall. Whether ‘Nine Rivers’ people or ‘Hall’ people, however, they were all showing off their wealth by wearing richly dyed silks that were embroidered with fanciful designs.

There were only two exceptions: me and a man who had been left alone in the corner of the room.

His skin was that of someone from the Nine Rivers, but it was darkly tanned from long days under the harsh sun. His long, black hair hung down in a loose queue, and only a worn leather strap kept it in place. His clothes weren’t silk. They weren’t even robes. They were the roughspun shirt and trousers of a common farmer. The man had cleaned himself up, but his clothing was stained with sweat, and he had a scruffy beard that made him look a bit dirty.

The more ‘noble’ servants had chosen to ignore this man, but I remembered what Mei had told me when we had first met. Sometimes, the rich and powerful would choose to dress as beggars. While I couldn’t be certain, the moment I saw this man, I felt that he shouldn’t be dismissed so easily.

So, I chose to take the workbench next to him.

When I did, I noticed a glint in his eye.

He walked over and stuck out his hand toward me. “Hello, I’m Johnathan Yo—ahem—Yong JinZhan. Call me Jon.”

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