The Undying Immortal System

When GuiMing and GuiAi first floated the idea of people returning to the world orb, there was quite a bit more pushback than I had been expecting.

Originally, people had been happy to enter the orb since it was the only way to survive the assault on Mount Jiang. Then, after living there for a few years, most of the mortals were happy with the peace and safety that it offered. Even though space was somewhat limited inside, and even if there was a slight feeling of wrongness about the place, they didn't want to leave. Your next chapter awaits on My Virtual Library Empire

As people had quickly found out, qi didn't work correctly in my storage space. People couldn't cultivate, and cultivators couldn't use their qi properly. So, for ordinary mortals, the world orb offered something they had never experienced before, a place of near absolute safety where cultivators were no more powerful than anyone else. For many, this was like a dream.

However, living in the sect for several decades had changed things.

First, the mortals that I had originally brought with me were rapidly aging. When we first arrived, they were all between the ages of 20 and 35, but now, they were all 65 to 80. They were all parents, grandparents, and in some cases, even great-grandparents. Most of the 'outsiders' allied with our clan were their descendants.

Of course, as I had hoped, many of these descendants were no longer outsiders. The members of my clan had also had children, and many of them had paired up with descendants of these mortals, expanding the scope of our clan as a whole. This was good, but it led to fewer people being willing to be locked up away from the rest of the world.

More important, though, was the fact that most of the people in these younger generations were no longer mortals. With the help of the guild halls, nearly everyone was able to achieve a nine-star affinity with whichever elements they desired, and with these affinities, they could learn to cultivate. For most, a nine-star affinity wasn't enough to reach Martial Master, but being able to cultivate at all made them loath to enter a place where cultivation was impossible.

For the members of my clan, the situation was even worse. Those who applied themselves were given eight- and seven-star affinities so that they would eventually be able to join the sect. For them, entering my storage space would be akin to cutting off their futures.

In sum, this meant the only ones who might have wanted to go inside were the young and the elderly, but because of familial ties, they wouldn't want to enter and be completely cut off from their parents and children.

This created a rather delicate situation, and I wasn't willing to force anyone to enter, but my solution was simple and straightforward: Affinities.

After years of work, I had perfected Rank 4 Essence Gathering Formations, and through a bit of trial and error, I had found minerals suitable for storing large quantities of essence. These still weren't as good as Jin's beryllium oxide, but they were good enough. By sending NiangBa and his teams out with these new formations, I was able to harvest far more essence than before, and I used this essence as a lure to tempt people back into my storage space.

While people couldn't cultivate inside, their bodies were still able to absorb essence. So, anyone who lived and worked inside would be allotted a portion of essence every month, and in time, everyone would be able to acquire a peak seven-star affinity. They would still need to go outside to cultivate, but this wasn't a problem. GuiAi set up a system where people could apply for one-month vacations to the outside world.

Was all of this wise?

Originally, I had done my best to keep my storage space a secret, but with people going in and out all the time, the Sovereigns would catch on to what we were doing pretty fast. This might make them greedy, and they might come to cause trouble for me.

So, was doing this wise? Maybe not, but I felt that I had to do it anyway. Something was coming. Something big. Compared to that, the greed of a few lowly Sovereigns was nothing.

Arranging everything in my storage space took quite a bit of time, and I could only thank GuiMing and GuiAi for putting in a significant amount of effort to make it all work.

When renovating the place, I had basically destroyed everything that had previously been built, and the new residents had to construct an entirely new community from scratch. However, while people still couldn't use their qi inside the space, building this new settlement was a bit easier than it had been the first time around.

This was mainly because I allowed people to construct buildings in the outside world. Then, once they were complete, I would pull them into my storage space. This, again, created potential problems with the Sovereigns, but again, I didn't care. We needed to get things sorted as quickly as possible.

Another advantage we had was that ShouLi, Liang, and NiangBa had begun distributing information about the basics of Rank 1 body cultivation in an attempt both to help the clan grow and to gather new information. So, while people might not have been able to use their qi, many of them had already enhanced their bodies, so simple tasks such as constructing buildings and plowing fields weren't a problem.

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Still, bringing the living standards of my storage space up to what existed in TongBei would take time.

As for the rest of my clan, I was a bit disappointed by the progress they had made.

The first generation that I had brought with me from the Wastes had nearly all stalled out in the Martial Lord Realm, and even ShouLi and NiangBa, my two top-tier prodigies, had barely made it to Peak King. Originally, ShouLi and Yan had made plans for conquering the entirety of the North Empire, but this never came to fruition. Our clan simply didn't have enough powerful Lords and Kings to make it happen.

In the end, ShouLi had to resign as King of Black River without ever going any further. The only bright spot was that during her reign, she had earned more than enough contribution points to simply buy the energy she needed to advance to Emperor.

Of all the members of this first generation, only three others were likely to follow suit: NiangBa, Mo, and RuLan.

Truthfully, this wasn't too surprising. The people who had joined me were almost all the dregs of the Su Clan, so the fact that they were able to make it as far as they had was a testament to the power of learning through memory orbs. What was a bit more disappointing, though, was the second generation.

I had hoped that being born and raised in the sect would have given people greater aptitudes, but in the end, only a handful were able to succeed.

The most promising person in the entire second generation was QiQiang, the first-born son of Mo and RuLan. When ShouLi stepped down from her position as King of Black River, it was QiQiang who had stepped up to fill the vacancy she left behind. Somewhat unsurprisingly, he had been gifted with a blessing for enhanced comprehension of body cultivation, and he had been born with an unnaturally high talent for alchemy. For whatever reason, the sect didn't make him a Chosen, but he earned a position as a grade 2 core disciple on his first visit to the sect's Exam.

As for the third generation, most of them were still rather young, but those few who had been blessed were already showing signs of promise.

When it became clear that only a few people in my clan would make it to Martial Emperor, I made the decision to go ahead and ascend to Heaven City with only the support of my Revered Elders. Like me, they had all easily reached Martial Emperor, and with the clan having stalled out, there was no reason to wait around.

The only ones who didn't join us were Bao and SuYin. They had spent too much time in the lower Ranks working on their soul cultivation, so they weren't quite ready to make the trip.

Without the Master of the Lightning Peak involved, this journey up the mountain was straightforward, and we made it to Heaven City without any real trouble along the way.

When we arrived, three people were there to greet us, Shen, Jin, and Huo NuAn, the Masters of the Earth, Metal, and Fire Peaks.

After entering the privacy of Jin's conference room, a place where not even the Sovereigns could spy on us, Huo NuAn quickly got to her reason for meeting with me.

"My time as Master of the Fire Peak Will soon be coming to an end, and I want you to take over for me. There will be a few formalities to go through, but with the elders and me backing you, there won't be much trouble."

I tapped on the table in thought and then looked at Shen. "What do you think?"

This deference seemed to surprise Huo NuAn. She had likely been observing me for several years by this point, and she probably knew that I had never interacted with Shen before.

Shen just snorted and shook his head. "Don't. Becoming the Master of a Peak has its benefits, but you will need to swear an Oath. An Oath that I'm pretty sure you won't enjoy."

Huo NuAn looked at him angrily. "Shen, you know as well as I do that the moment he steps onto the Summit, that Oath is null and void. It is no reason not to become the Master of a Peak."

She looked at me. "The Oath is meaningless. Once you leave the sect, it will no longer have any effect. The only real downside to becoming the Master of the Fire Peak is that once you accept the position, you will be required to serve a term of 200 years. However, while this is slightly problematic, it is nothing to worry about. As long as you are successful, the rewards are more than worth this slight inconvenience."

I looked at Shen.

He chuckled in amusement. "No, you don't want to take the Oath."

I turned back to Huo NuAn. "Sorry, Peak Master, but I must follow Shen's advice in this."

Huo NuAn seemed to get a bit annoyed by this exchange, but eventually, she accepted my answer and left. Once she was gone, I looked between Shen and Jin.

"She seems… decent. She has helped me out a few times now, and with her position in the sect, she might be a valuable ally to have. Should we give her an orb?"

Jin tapped her fingers together. "Maybe, but we can't tell her why. NuAn can be difficult to deal with. She's a good person, mostly, but she likely won't want to follow the lead of a mere child like yourself."

I raised an eyebrow at this, but Jin didn't retract her statement.

Shen stepped in to break the awkward moment. "How long are you sticking around this time?"

I took a breath. "I… don't know. Something is going to happen… but I don't know when. Hopefully not soon, but… I don't know."

This answer caused both elders to become contemplative.

I cleared my throat. "How long… My clan and I have been a bit noisy this time around. How long do you think I have until the Sovereigns take direct action against us."

Shen tapped the table. "It depends on a few factors, but you're safe until the point of stagnation. They aren't– They won't bother you until then."

I nodded in thought. I had several decades before I would need to worry about stagnation, but that wasn't necessarily what mattered. Physically, ShouLi was older than me, and once the Sovereigns could take her, they almost surely would. More to the point, Liang was only a low-level Martial King. Unless he could advance further, he would be the first to stagnate, and as one of our initial body cultivators, he would likely be a high-priority target.

That only gave us 18 years to work with. Was that enough?

The problem was Liang. If he could advance, we would have another 20 years without needing to worry about anyone interfering…

I slumped in thought and covered my mouth as I subvocalized.

"System, give everyone who was on my clan's original leadership council a one-billion boost to both their comprehension of cultivation techniques and their comprehension of their chosen professions."

Purchase confirmed. Cost 12 billion credits. 9,647,270,706 credits remaining.

Hopefully, that would buy us an extra 20 years. With 38 more years to work with, I was certain that I could accomplish all my goals.

Of course, that was assuming whatever threat was looming on the horizon didn't strike first.