The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 314: Life 76, Age 156, Martial Emperor Peak
As the Rank 4 Drill of Fellowship had not been ‘novel’ enough to trigger an enlightenment, I had to struggle through the process of upgrading ShouLi’s Rank 5 and 6 techniques all on my own. However, the techniques that I was trying to create weren’t too different from the Rank 4 technique that I had already created. I mainly just needed to change where the blend of wu and karmic energy was applied.
This wasn’t overly difficult, and it only took me another few years to create these two new techniques.
Once they were complete, I began siphoning off a sizable portion of the karmic energy that was being generated from the members of the Su Clan. By infusing this energy into my nervous system, I was able to break through to Rank 5 in body cultivation, and by applying it to my viscera, I was able to break through to Rank 6.
In only a little over a decade, I was able to advance all the way from the Peak of Rank 4 to the Peak of Rank 6.
At this point, I no longer had a clear understanding of exactly what I had been doing to my body. For example, with each Rank of body cultivation, I had been circulating ever more powerful energy through my skin. At first, this had done little more than cause my tanned skin to turn somewhat pale. After Rank 4, my skin took on a faintly metallic hue. Now, at Rank 6, my entire body looked like it was made from frosted silver. Even my dark black hair had turned a silvery white.
Looking at my reflection in a mirror, I couldn’t help but feel that I had lost a part of my humanity.
But… did that really matter? After my death, I would be sent back to the start, and all of these changes would be wiped away. This body gave me the power that I would need if I wanted to rise to Sovereign, and, possibly, beyond.
Wondering exactly how powerful I had become, I took out my Rank 6 crescent moon spade and tapped the side of its shovel against my arm. The resulting sound was a bit muffled, but it carried the distinct ring of metal striking metal.
When I drew the blade of the shovel lightly across my forearm, the only result was a high-pitched scraping sound.
Wondering how much punishment my body could take, I pressed down and drew my shovel’s blade across my forearm once more.
Even with all the enhancements I had made to my muscles, it took a full tenth of my strength for a Rank 6 refined weapon to even break my skin. If I were up against a normal person with such a weapon, would they even be able to hurt me?
Of course, while I might not need to worry about attacks from bladed weapons, I wasn’t invincible. I had infused my body with metal energy to the point that I was now partially made of metal. This improved my defense against metal weapons, but metal was weak to fire. If I faced off against a powerful fire cultivator, or someone with a fire-based refined weapon, I would need to be extremely careful.
Still, since I would have needed to be extremely careful when fighting fire cultivators even before cultivating my body, this wasn’t exactly a downside. It was just something that I would need to keep in mind.
Wanting to perform more tests to find the limits of my new form, I stood and left the Hall of Ancestral Worship for the first time in several years.
If I wanted to accurately gauge my current combat power, I would need a sparring partner of equal strength, and I knew of two young men who would be able to fill that role perfectly. So, I headed directly to the Palace of Supreme Harmony to find them.
Unfortunately, when I arrived, the place was empty.
After checking around, I learned that the entire leadership council had left earlier in the day to visit the Grain Jar Sect. Having never heard of such a sect before, it took me a few moments to realize that this was the sect that Mei had set up in the southwestern corner of the Wastes—the sect for gu keepers.
Wondering both about the name and about why the entire leadership council had decided to pay it a visit, I immediately headed out to investigate.
As I left the Su Clan’s palace complex and walked through the streets of Dragon Gate, nearly everyone I passed stopped what they were doing to stare at me. Not wanting to be interrogated by inquisitive townsfolk, I used a movement technique to speed through the town too fast for anyone to notice me.
As movement techniques went, the one I used was rather basic. It was a simple Yellow-Rank technique that created a blade of metal qi to cut through the air in front of me. This didn’t improve my speed directly, but it allowed me to run as fast as I could without having to worry about creating a powerful wake in my passing.
As I ran through the city and picked my way through crowded streets, I was only able to reach a speed of around 50 kilometers per hour. However, once outside the city, I was able to more than double that. When I set myself and tried running as fast as I possibly could, I reached a speed of nearly 600 kilometers per hour.
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Overall, this was slightly disappointing. A Rank 5 wind horse would easily be able to outrun me. However, considering that they were bred for speed above all else, this wasn’t too surprising.
Running all out like this, it didn’t take me long to reach the border between the Dragon Gate Kingdom and the Grain Jar Sect.
As only the formation under Dragon Gate had its third ring destroyed, none of our Emperors were able to pass beyond the borders of the Dragon Gate Kingdom. So, when the leadership council had left to ‘visit the Grain Jar Sect,’ they had only been able to go as far as this border region where a small city of tents had been erected.
Upon seeing these tents, I broke from my full sprint and strolled forward at a much more leisurely pace.
Taking this time to look around at my surroundings, I noticed something… odd.
Usually, farmers in the Wastes would focus on growing medicinal herbs. Yes, food was important, but the money that a person could make from growing foodstuffs paled in comparison to what they could earn from growing blue peonies. GuiMing had even built large, multi-story greenhouses that focused on food production so that the more valuable open fields could be used for producing precious herbs.
So… why were all of the fields around me growing sorghum?
Stranger still, these fields had been outfitted with Qi Gathering Formations. Sorghum was a mortal food crop. It was capable of absorbing small quantities of qi, but it was entirely incapable of converting that qi into medicinal energy. Even if absorbed directly, the qi in sorghum didn’t do anything, so what was the point?
Looking back toward Dragon Gate City, I saw what I expected—fields of herbs. But looking toward the Grain Jar Sect, all I saw were fields of sorghum, wheat, barley, rice, and other grains. Was this why the leadership council had come here? Had this ‘Grain Jar Sect’ forced people to stop growing herbs? Why would they do that?
Confused, I continued forward to find out.
As I approached the tents, a pair of guards stepped forward to stop me. Upon seeing my strange, metallic complexion, they both narrowed their eyes and placed a hand on the hilts of their swords.
The guard on the left addressed me in a neutral tone. “Sorry, sir. No one is allowed to approach.”
I nodded to him amiably. “I understand. I am here to see ShouLi. Please tell her that Su Fang has arrived.”
The guard on the right growled. “Who do you think you are? How dare you call the Empress by her name?”
Both men were becoming visibly agitated. They were only seconds away from drawing their weapons to attack me.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to hurt ShouLi’s guards, but I also didn’t want to waste more time here than necessary. The problem was, I didn’t know the protocols for this kind of situation.
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Without any better idea, I pulled out a gold coin and showed it to the men.
The guard on the right snarled. “Are you trying to bribe—”
I tossed the coin at him, and when it was hallway to him, I activated my will-lock to freeze it in place.
I looked at the guard on the left. “Please, go tell your superiors that Su Fang is here to speak with ShouLi.”
Thankfully, this guard was a bit smarter than his companion. He immediately ran off into the mess of tents.
The remaining guard and I were left to stare at each other in silence for a few minutes, but this tense atmosphere was soon broken by the noise of heavy footsteps.
Dozens of cultivators poured out of the small tent city, but I fixed my gaze on the person leading them: ShouLi.
When she saw me, she froze, and her eyes narrowed into slits. “Who are you?”
I smiled and opened my arms wide. “You… don’t recognize me? Has it really been that long?”
She blinked. “An… Ancestor? What… happened to you?”
With TongBin having taken over the distribution of our clan’s karmic energy, I no longer needed to visit ShouLi on a yearly basis. So, we hadn’t seen each other since shortly after I had advanced to Rank 4 of body cultivation. I knew that I looked different, but this reaction still seemed like a bit much.
I motioned toward the tents. “Let’s talk inside.”
She nodded slowly then guided me through the crowd and into a large tent pavilion.
Inside, there were several tables arranged in a horseshoe pattern. Each of these tables contained plates that were overflowing with various grains. Next to each plate, there was a large ceramic jug.
I looked around, confused. “What’s… going on here?”
ShouLi smirked. “Well, we were in the middle of discussing Sect Master LiMei’s new products.”
I raised an eyebrow, but ShouLi just gestured toward the jug sitting next to a plate of sorghum.
Upon picking it up and removing the lid, I was punched in the face with the odor of an extremely potent liquor. “What…”
Seeing my reaction, ShouLi coughed to keep from laughing. “The others are new, but that one… That one is the Grain Jar Sect’s original offering. Rank 2 baijiu. It’s cheap enough that a wealthy mortal can afford it while being potent enough to improve the cultivation base of even a Grandmaster.”
I turned on energy vision and looked into the jar.
At first, I just stared wide-eyed at the liquid that had been infused with a low level of extremely pure earth qi. However, my eyes were soon drawn to a faint ball of wind qi at its bottom.
“What is that?”
ShouLi didn’t answer my question. She just looked at the entrance of the pavilion.
Mei stepped inside and walked to a table on the opposite side of the horseshoe.
Then, she opened a jar and used a tendril of wind qi to pull out the object hidden inside.
It was a small worm.
She presented it to me. “This is a Rank 2 Liquor Gu. It feeds on various grains and converts them to alcohol. While we can grow them to Rank 3—and have even experimented with growing them to Rank 4—each worm can only produce a single pot of alcohol, so going beyond Rank 2 isn’t economical.”
Mei pointed to the various jars around the room. “Until now, we have mostly been using sorghum to produce baijiu. However, we are looking to expand our offerings to include whiskeys, vodkas, and gins.”
ShouLi cleared her throat. “The Grain Jar Sect’s baijiu is our most popular export. There is a high demand for it from people all over the continent, and we are the only ones producing it.”
I nodded slowly. “I… see. Keep up the good work.”
When I had given Mei the job of setting up a sect for gu keepers, I hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but I definitely hadn’t been expecting her to set up a distillery. This was… good… though, right?
I shook my head and refocused on ShouLi. While learning about what my new gu keeping sect was getting up to was nice, it wasn’t why I had come here.
“Where is everyone else? I need to have a little… talk… with Liang and NiangBa.”
