Stepping through the stone arch caused my surroundings to flash, but it appeared as if I hadn’t moved. The only changes of note were that the stone arch had vanished and there was now a large desk in the middle of the road with an elderly man sitting behind it. A quick check with energy vision confirmed that this was all an illusion, similar to when I was leaving the Path of Mind in my last life.
The old man’s voice was rough and gravelly.
“Su Fang, you have demonstrated an acceptable level of soul cultivation while on the path. Your efforts to showcase your talents by training and managing others have also been noted. However, in the future, please refrain from doing such a thing on the path as it upsets the balance of these assessments.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but he didn’t give me a chance to speak.
“While you have also demonstrated an acceptable level of knowledge in formations, you have not shown any level of martial skills in your current realm. As such, your position in the sect will be reduced to ungraded inner sect disciple. Participate in an Exam at your earliest convenience to have your skills properly assessed.”
Without waiting for my reply, both the man and the desk vanished. They were replaced with a solitary stone arch.
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After exiting the arch, I found myself at the edge of a forest on a hill overlooking Profound City. LiTing didn’t arrive until several minutes later.
“How did it go?”
She held up a jade token with the symbol for ‘outer’ on it in reply. She seemed disappointed, but not dispirited.
“Oh… sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. The elder said I hadn’t demonstrated any refining or combat ability as a Lord, so ungraded outer sect disciple was the best he could give me. I just need to spend some time improving in those areas. Then, I can take the Exam and move back up to the inner sect when I’m ready. With my talent in martial arts, core disciple might be a stretch, but we’ll see.”
I appreciated her attitude. “Don’t worry. We’ll be holed up in the city for a while, so you’ll have plenty of time to improve. We just need to make sure we stay safe while doing so.”
She smiled, and we headed down the path to Profound City.
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As soon as we entered the city gate, a large, muscular man stopped us. His body was covered in scars, and his face held a perpetual scowl.
When I switched on energy vision, I became worried. I had a hard time differentiating between the various minor stages within the Ruler realm, so I couldn’t always tell someone’s exact cultivation level, but the man before me was definitely a high-level King. He could even be a Peak King.
“Su Fang?”
I could have tried to deny it, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good.
I nodded.
He gave a light snort. “An elder instructed me to retrieve you. You are to come with me to meet with the young master. He has been waiting for you for quite some time.”
What kind of pull did Lord Hao have if he could send a Peak King after me? And an elder told him I was arriving? Wasn’t that ‘interfering in the affairs of the younger generation?’
If my cultivation base were higher, if LiTing hadn’t been standing next to me, I might have tried to resist, but under these circumstances, there was nothing I could do.
I took a deep breath.
“Lead the way.”
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The man brought us to a spacious compound on the northern edge of the city.
The entire place was dripping with a sense of superiority. Gaudy decorations made of gold and spirit stones were everywhere, and large statues of essence-infused stone lined the path from the compound’s entrance to the doors of the main hall.
Inside, the hall was empty except for a lone man perched atop a high throne.
It was Ning ChenKun.
I exhaled in relief and did a quick check of his cultivation level. He was near the limits of the Lord realm and would soon be ascending to King.
LiTing and I gave slight bows.
“Greetings, Lord Ning.”
Our guide didn’t seem too happy with the level of respect we were showing. He was about to make his displeasure known, but Lord Ning stopped him.
“Leave us. The three of us need to talk in private.”
Our guide bowed and retreated. Once he was gone, Lord Ning motioned to us with one hand.
“Follow me.”
He led us to a small sitting room where a steaming teapot was already waiting for our arrival. After everyone was seated, Lord Ning steepled his hands and studied us.
“You two look quite different from what I remember.”
LiTing snorted and rolled her eyes at that, but she didn’t say anything, unwilling to speak of how I had altered our appearances.
Noting our lack of comment, Lord Ning continued.
“It took you longer to reach this place than I had expected. Did you get stuck on one of the paths?”
I picked up one of the cups and swirled the tea a bit in thought before responding.
“We used the Path of Soul to aid us in our cultivation. We could have passed through faster, but we didn’t want to waste the opportunity the path provided us.”
Lord Ning didn’t look too happy with this response. Likely, this was because he didn’t like the idea of practicing soul cultivation without the proper libraries and environment. However, he was polite enough not to openly question our choices. Instead, he changed the topic.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What do you plan to do now? In the past, you had indicated a desire to join my faction.”
I had been thinking about this, and while I did want to work with the man, if I weren’t careful, working with his faction could prove to be too much of a distraction. We could help each other, but ultimately, my goals and Lord Ning’s goals were not the same. I didn’t want to be placed into a subservient position where I would need to advance his agenda to the detriment of my own.
“What would joining your faction look like? LiTing and I need safety to improve our skills, but we aren’t looking to be roped into fights against someone else’s enemies.” I paused and sighed. “I know that is a bit hypocritical since I’m asking you to defend us from our enemies, but that is what I’m hoping for. I can provide your faction with any Rank 4 formations and pills you need. LiTing will soon be able to provide you with Rank 4 refined weapons. In return, keep us safe and don’t let anyone know the source of these items.”
Lord Ning rubbed his chin in thought.
“That is possible. As you may have noticed, my deathsworn are more than capable of providing sufficient protection within the city. Even without them, few would dare to cause a ruckus in my territory. My grandfather is not known for being kind to anyone who targets members of his clan.”
Lord Ning took a long sip of tea as he considered what to offer me.
“Let’s be frank with each other. Your master will soon be replaced. No one knows how the new elder of the Li clan will treat you, but they will almost certainly have some enmity toward your old master. So, it is safe to assume they won’t be overly kind to you. If this situation comes to pass, I would have you consider joining the Ning Clan. The Li’s might not like that, but there is nothing they can do about it while we remain on this continent.”
I schooled my reaction to not betray my thoughts. Why was Emperor Li going to be replaced?
“To that end, here is my offer. You may complete missions for your peak as needed since you will need the points to increase your affinity, but anything extra must be sold to my faction. We will pay you 50% of the market rate, but we can provide you with any materials you desire for free. If you wish to complete a combat mission, you must do so through the faction. Finally, before you ascend to Earth City, you will need to coordinate with us.”
This deal was more than good enough. 50% was a bit low, but if Lord Ning could provide me with an endless stream of Rank 5 herbs to practice with, it would be worth the tradeoff. There were only a couple of sticking points.
“What if you can’t provide us with sufficient materials? I will soon be learning Rank 5 alchemy and will need an excessive number of herbs to do so. While I can assure you that the process will be profitable, it might be a large burden on your supply chain.”
Lord Ning smirked at this. “If you burn through countless herbs with nothing to show for it, we will need to reassess the situation, but if you can provide Rank 5 pills, I can provide you with as many herbs as you desire.”
I bowed my head in assent and moved on to the other important detail.
“I have already promised to provide Zhuge Yan with resources as he forms his own faction. I can do so under the same terms that I provide them to you, but I need to hold to my agreement with him.”
Lord Ning waved this off. “Yan will be joining us as a sub-faction. He is one of us, not a competitor. Do not worry about this.”
“Very well. I accept your proposal.”
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Relying on his ‘deathsworn,’ Ning ChenKun had claimed several blocks within the city as his personal territory. To keep us safe, or simply to keep an eye on us, he provided LiTing and me with adjoining apartments in a tall building near the center of this territory, and after I made a request, he even sent one of his deathsworn to train me in Lord-level combat.
Ning ChenKun had his own motivations and aspirations, and I didn’t believe for a second that he did anything out of a sense of altruism, but his actions cemented him in my mind as a reliable business partner. I wouldn’t share any secrets with him, but I could work with him.
With the help of the deathsworn, my combat skills quickly improved, and after a month, I felt somewhat confident in my abilities as a Lord-level fighter.
To test myself and to train further, I entered the Earth Peak Trial and faced off against the first stage’s golem. As it was only a construct, it couldn’t use will-locks on me, but in every other aspect, its capabilities were a large step up from what I had been fighting as a Grandmaster.
While I had only entered the Trial to scope it out and spend some time training my combat abilities, I still should have taken more time to prepare.
My biggest mistake was not replacing my wood-based spirit fire. The Yellow-Rank fire seed in my soul was completely ineffective against this creature, and the fire-based spirit fire I had in my body only seemed to make the situation worse. I could have tried to switch the spirit fire out for something more useful, but I doubted even a metal fire would provide the one-hit kills I had grown accustomed to when using the wood fire on Grandmaster-level golems.
My lack of preparation meant that I wouldn’t be able to end fights quickly, but fortunately, a long-drawn-out training session was exactly the kind of practice I needed.
Using LiTing’s Rank 3 staff, I was able to bash the golem’s formations enough that it finally stopped moving. After it was down, I didn’t even consider advancing to the second stage. Without a way to quickly incapacitate one of my opponents, I would be stuck fighting two of those monsters at the same time, and I didn’t yet have the skill level needed to do that.
Before moving deeper into the Trial, I needed to prepare, so I took the gains I had made and left.
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My alchemy and formation abilities were far above anything that could be expected from a new Lord, and my soul was stronger than some Kings. After a couple of months of training with Ning ChunKun’s deathsworn, my combat ability also reached an acceptable level, I was nearly ready to attempt the Exam Trial once more.
Before I did so, I first needed to figure out how I would handle the memory-loss issue.
I could just let it go and not worry about it any longer. After all, it didn’t matter too much what happened inside the Exam, and at this point, I had a decent understanding of how to improve my standing in the sect without relying on any illicit knowledge.
Also, after what had happened last time, was it worth poking a sleeping dragon? I would be watched closely, and the result of trying to smuggle out any kind of information could be catastrophic.
I just couldn’t break the feeling that this was an interesting puzzle I needed to solve. I wanted to give finding out more about the Exam one more chance, but I needed to be smart about it.
“System, I want to upgrade my mental journal so that I can write simple messages in it with only a thought. When I do this, I want the process to be completely undetectable by anyone in this world.”
Cost is not possible to calculate at this time.
That confused me for a second, but when I understood, I ground my teeth.
“System, same request except I want the process to be undetectable by anyone in the world except for the incarnation of the Earthly Dao.”
Cost 10,000 credits.
“Purchase.” I spat the words out in annoyance.
Purchase confirmed 6,732,815,588 credits remaining.
The ability I gained allowed me to write simple messages in my journal with just a thought, but when I first tried doing this, I found that my body language was problematic. If I stood still and gazed in the distance while thinking of what to write, it would be an obvious tell that I was up to something. So, I spent several days practicing to make sure I could write a message without any outward signs.
To ensure nothing went wrong, I decided to keep things basic. One message upon entering the Trial to confirm that the journal is working. After that, only essential information would be written down. If nothing important happened and there were just the kinds of tests I had seen in the last set of messages, I wouldn’t write anything at all.
Finally, I made what had become a ritual purchase. I still didn’t know if it did anything, but I wasn’t willing to take the risk of not buying it.
“System, I want a mental reversion point at the time I enter the Exam that automatically activates after I leave it."
Purchase confirmed. Cost 100 million credits. 6,632,815,588 credits remaining.
Prepared as I could be, I went to the Exam site and entered the portal. An instant later, I stepped out and turned to look at the scribe.
“Core disciple 1. Congratulations.”
He spoke with the same disinterested voice as always and quickly exchanged my identity jade before shooing me away.
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I would have plenty of time to investigate the benefits of my new position later. As soon as I returned to Profound City, I secluded myself in my apartment and opened my journal to see what I had written.
I’m in.
ENDLESS TORTURE!
DON’T REMEMBER!
FORGET!