The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 238: Life 73, Age 36, Martial Grandmaster Peak

With the first group of Disciples advancing to Martial Master, there were a few expansions that needed to happen to our settlement on Mount Jiang, and the first one I wanted to tackle was an extension to our Technique Hall.

At the moment, the hall was a rather empty single-story structure. It only contained the three bookcases with the Rank 1 cultivation techniques and one bookcase with the orbs containing basic crafting and martial skills. This limited selection of techniques had been sufficient in the clan’s early days, but I had hundreds of techniques filling up my mental library. There was no reason to let them go to waste.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

However, there was one major problem. My mental library could only be used by me. If I wanted to make the knowledge it contained available to others, I would need to first write it all down by hand, and I had no desire to hand copy countless technique scrolls. So, I could only turn to the System for assistance.

After thinking through the problem, I came up with a few possible solutions, and while I doubted its feasibility, I decided to check out my most outlandish idea first.

“System, how much would it cost for me to gain the ability to project my mental library into the physical world so that anyone could read the books that it contains?”

Cost is not possible to calculate at this time.

This answer wasn’t exactly a surprise, but it was still a bit disappointing. My second idea was no doubt doomed to failure as well.

“System, how much would it cost for me to gain the ability to automatically create memory orbs similar to those that I purchased for the Rank 1 cultivation techniques? I would want to be able to select an orb and technique and then have this ability fill the orb with all the information needed to use the technique properly. It only needs to work with Rank 1 techniques, and it only needs to include knowledge that I already possess, but I want the quality and breadth of information to match what is in the orbs I previously purchased.”

Cost is not possible to calculate at this time.

Unfortunate, but I knew that I had been asking for a lot. That kind of ability would have needed to actively make decisions about what information to include, and such a feature went well beyond any of the abilities I had purchased previously.

“Alright, System, what about a similar technique that, again, only works on Rank 1 techniques, but this time, I just want it to be able to directly copy information from the technique scrolls in my mental library.”

Cost 1,000,000 credits.

That wasn’t too bad, and the cost should remain reasonable with higher-level techniques. There were enough advantages to learning techniques from memory orbs instead of scrolls that I saw a lot of value in this kind of ability, but I just didn’t have enough orbs to make it worthwhile for the time being.

“Okay, System, what about an ability that can copy information from my mental library directly onto a blank book or scroll? Again, it only needs to work on Rank 1 information.”

Cost 10,000 credits.

“How much if it works up to Rank 3?”

Cost 1,000,000 credits.

“Purchase.”

Purchase confirmed. 743,017,430,897 credits remaining.

That would let me do the bulk of what I wanted to do, but I still needed to deal with the Rank 2 cultivation techniques. I wanted to provide new Martial Masters with easy access to all the information they needed to create a solid foundation, and that meant purchasing new orbs that contained the necessary knowledge. �

Unfortunately, my supply of fresh memory orbs was quickly dwindling. I had less than 50 left by this point, and I needed them for more than just teaching people basic techniques. After running the numbers several times, I had to concede that I just didn’t have enough orbs to do everything I wanted to do. I would only be able to provide orbs for the most basic techniques, and everything else would need to be learned from scrolls.

I riffled through my mental library and found the 9 Low-Yellow Rank 2 cultivation techniques that matched up with the Low-Yellow Rank 1 techniques that I had previously purchased. Then, I took out nine orbs and placed them down in front of me.

“System, copy all the knowledge necessary to cultivate these techniques properly into these orbs, including information on training methods such as the use of practice meridians. I also want you to include information on how to deconstruct and disperse meridians to abolish one’s cultivation base. The orbs only need to contain knowledge I already possess.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 9 million credits. 743,008,430,897 credits remaining.

Finally, I had to deal with creating a formation that could scan a Martial Master’s energy body and award them contribution points based on how well they had cultivated. The complexity involved in this was a bit beyond me. What criteria should I even use when determining how many points to award?

Ideally, meridian placement would be an important factor in such judgments, but if a person’s Rank 2 cultivation technique didn’t match up well with their Rank 1 technique, meridian placement became extremely difficult, and there typically wasn’t a ‘good’ way to do it.

So instead, I decided to just have the formation focus on the quality and regularity of the weave of a person’s meridians. This was only a small part of what it meant to cultivate as a Martial Master, but it should be sufficient for my purposes. Proper placement could then simply become a requirement for being allowed to advance to Grandmaster.

Unfortunately, I still didn’t have the necessary schematics for creating such a formation, so I could only turn to the System for assistance.

“System, I want a formation to test a Martial Master’s cultivation base. It should be similar to the one I previously purchased for testing a Disciple’s. Points should be awarded based on the weave and regularity of a person’s meridians, with a total possible reward of 1,000 points per level.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 5 billion credits. 737,308,430,897 credits remaining.

With that in place, I considered my upgrades to the clan’s infrastructure complete. So, I decided to take a bit of time off and take some of the kids to Rosehill for a day out.

At the start of the new year, I returned to the Su Clan’s training compound for the next round of recruiting.

Everything seemed somewhat normal at first, but I soon realized a problem. More than ninety children had shown up to participate in this year’s blessing ceremony. That was nearly double the usual amount.

When I confronted Su Heng about this discrepancy, he looked somewhat abashed.

“Prince Fang... As you may know... The Su Clan is a large family that has ruled the Wastes for centuries...”

I nodded slowly, but I kept my eyes locked on the man.

“Well, in that time... We often have to... cut away branch families.” He winced at the piercing glare I gave him as he said this. “Don’t worry. These are all still blood members of the Su Clan. They are just distant relatives. The clan just doesn’t have the resources to support them all.”

I chuckled slightly and did my best to impart a bit of menace into it. “So, the clan elders have decided to try and pass these discarded branch members off as true members of the Su Clan to drain more resources from me?”

“That... No... It’s just...” Su Heng dropped his eyes to the ground. “Yes.”

This situation went a bit beyond my expectations, and it brought up interesting questions about the nature of the ascension to Sovereign. Would karma generated from these distant branch members be good enough to allow me to ascend? Emperor Li had said that I needed to be related to the people I drew karma from by blood, but how close did that relationship need to be? Was a single drop of blood enough?

The only information I had on the Bloodline Tier came from guesswork, supposition, and cryptic hints. I didn’t have any strong reasons to believe that these distant relatives would be any better or worse at generating karma than members of the Su Clan’s main branch. In fact, as a descendant of a distant branch myself, some of these people might be more closely related to me than someone like ShouLi.

Making my decision, I focused back on Su Heng.

“As long as these trainees are blood members of the Su Clan, I can accept them. However, I will be checking this. Don’t even think about trying to cheat me.”

Su Heng dipped his head in a quick bow. “Of course, Prince, of course.”

In truth, I didn’t care too much about whether all my recruits were blood members of the Su Clan or not. Even if a few of them weren’t, they would be surrounded by true Su Clan members, so they would almost certainly marry into the clan anyway.

However, I didn’t want the Su Clan’s elders to think that I was an easy mark. I would have to make a show of checking everyone with a truth stone to verify their status.

Aside from this unusual spike in the number of children present, the three-month training camp proceeded mostly as normal. At the end of it, I walked away with 58 new recruits.