After passing the final barrier, we were teleported somewhere new. While we were still standing in the middle of a cloud bank, our visibility had improved, and we could now see up to a dozen meters away.
In the middle of the clearing, ChenKun stood rigidly with his hands clasped behind his back. To his left, Yan’s group smiled and waited for us to join them.
We walked over, but just as I was about to ask how things had gone for his group, Yan shook his head to silence me and motioned in the direction we had come from.
Behind us, there were six arches. Three, including the one we had just exited, shone with a brilliant white light. Two glowed dimly, and one was completely black. Piecing everything together, I could guess the three bright gates were from the three groups that had successfully passed the test. The dark gate was for a group that had failed.
We stood there quietly as we waited for the final result.
When a second gate faded and turned black, Ning ChenKun’s face twisted with anger. He didn’t make a sound, but the tension in his body was nearing a breaking point.
When the final gate flared with bright white light, everyone’s tension was released, but Ning ChenKun still didn’t look happy.
Only one of the male subordinates stumbled out of the gate. No attendants followed him.
Ning ChenKun didn’t say anything to the man. He just flicked a sleeve and turned around to face the new gate that had just appeared behind us.
“Let’s go.”
Without any hesitation, he walked through the arch.
We all just looked at each other briefly before following behind.
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The gate teleported us above the cloud layer and to the outskirts of a small village surrounded by a short blue wall. Unlike the cities lower down the mountain, this village didn’t have any large, multistory buildings or massive building complexes. The entire place was only large enough to house a thousand or so people. How many of the residents were Emperors and how many were their descendants, I did not know.
My eyes only lingered on the village momentarily before they were drawn further up the mountain.
There, resting on the Summit of Dragon Peak, roughly two kilometers above us, stood a large, ornate temple. I couldn’t see many details from this far away, but while it was ornate, it didn’t look overly special. Still, I couldn’t look away from it.
A veritable waterfall of qi and other energies was pouring from high up in the sky and crashing down onto this temple. Some of it was absorbed into the building's walls, but most of the energy dispersed into the environment.
“What is that?”
I’m not sure who asked the question. It may have been me, but it could have been anyone.
Ning ChenKun’s reply was blunt and to the point. “The Summit.”
He only glanced at it before heading toward the village.
Tearing our eyes away from the glorious sight, we forced ourselves to follow after him. The walk to the village was silent, and Ning ChenKun’s attitude put a damper on what I felt should have been a time for celebration.
Right before we reached the village’s small wooden gate, he stopped and turned toward us.
He took a deep breath and suppressed the irritation that had been boiling up inside of him.
“There are four paths to the Summit. The Path of the Leader, The Path of the Crafter, The Path of the Master, and The Path of the True Chosen. As this group’s leader, I will be walking the Path of the Leader, but no others are allowed to follow. If you wish to climb to the Summit, I recommend following the Path of the Crafter. The Path of the Master requires you to spend two centuries as the master of one of the peaks, and the Path of the True Chosen is suicide.”
He gave us time to think about the situation before continuing.
“If any of you do not feel you can complete the Path of the Crafter, or simply do not wish to do so, you are welcome to leave the sect and join the Ning Clan. Normally, one is not allowed to abandon the sect, but as we are a Sovereign clan, you will all be allowed to withdraw and join us as guest elders. This is an important decision, so you should carefully consider your options.”
Ning ChenKun could barely look at us as he said this. He was still distracted by the results of the path, so his normal mask of affability had slipped.
“I can no longer provide anyone with any protection. My clan had no deathsworn in Heaven City, and I will immediately leave to climb to the Summit. Consider your decisions carefully, but know that waiting here too long can be dangerous. If you wish to join the Ning Clan, send a letter to our residence in South Gate City.”
I felt disappointed by Ning ChenKun’s response to the situation. The way he spoke, with a flat disinterested tone, made it seem like he didn’t care about us at all anymore.
We had gotten him to the city. Was he now ready to discard us as no longer useful? I had thought better of him than that.
Also, even if we were no longer able to help him in the sect, why wasn’t he trying harder to recruit us into his clan? It felt like he had just pitched joining his clan because he had to.
Our passage up the mountain had affected him in a strange way, and I didn’t understand why.
With his speech over, Ning ChenKun turned and walked into the village with his final surviving subordinate aside from Yan and me following close behind him.
I passed through the gate and meant to hurry to catch up to him and ask what was going on, but a man and woman stepped out to block our path. They were both middle-aged and were dressed like peasant farmers.
The woman looked at me with a predatory smile.
“Su Fang, it’s time we had a little chat.”
I didn’t immediately recognize either of them, but LiTing did. She darted forward and gave the woman a deep bow.
“Greetings, Master Jin.”
I blinked and then looked from the woman back to the man she was with. Only after a few more moments did I realize that he was Emperor Shen. I had only met him once, and that was over a decade ago. I had nearly forgotten what he looked like.
He raised a hand in greeting. “Don’t worry about your friends. I’ll take care of them. You and Jin need to discuss some things in private.”
I narrowed my eyes at him in thought. I did need to speak with Jin, but…
I looked at the woman. “You have a place we can speak without anyone listening in?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s all go together. I think it’s time we all sat down for a conversation. It’s long past time to end the secrecy between us.”
She lifted her right hand and rolled her fingers in thought.
“I thought it would be best to keep the details of our negotiation between just the two of us, but if that’s what you desire, it’s acceptable. Follow me.”
Everyone in our group, save for Cai XiaoYu, adopted a look of firm resolve. They knew what was coming, and they had been waiting for it.
Cai XiaoYu just looked bewildered by the situation.
----------------------------------------
As we walked, Jin saw fit to clear up my confusion about the situation with Ning ChenKun.
“Do you know why that Ning brat was so upset?”
“No. It felt… wrong. Shouldn’t he have at least been more passionate about recruiting us into his bloodline? Isn’t that what this is all for?”
Her eyes shot to Yan, but he just shook his head.
When Jin continued, her voice was more even and measured. She was choosing her words carefully.
“His grandfather, Ning ZeKun, is the only person in recent memory who… has been able to complete the Path of the True Chosen. When he did so, the Saint allowed him to expand his clan and ascend to Sovereign. Unlike… the other three Sovereign clans on the continent, the Ning clan does not have… a stronger force supporting them on the Central Continent. They’re all… here, and to date, Ning ZeKun is still their only Sovereign.”
I slotted this information into what Yan had told me previously, but it still didn’t explain Ning ChenKun’s reaction, so Jin continued.
“To improve his clan and ascend to Martial Spirit, Ning ZeKun needs strong descendants that can bolster his… family. Guest elders can… help. But ideally, he needs strong descendants. Ning ChenKun was the most promising descendant to arise in the clan in several years. Unfortunately, he failed this test.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Failed? Didn’t we succeed?”
Jin barked out a laugh. “He led fifteen Martial Emperors onto the path and eight of them died. What kind of success is that? Sure, you lit up three gates and were allowed to continue forward, but that doesn’t mean you succeeded.”
She sighed. “Little ChenKun is just not that talented of a leader. If it weren’t for your group being so abnormal, he wouldn’t have been able to survive. He’ll reach the Summit, so the Saint will allow him to ascend to Sovereign, but I doubt his grandfather will provide him the energy to do so. ZeKun would rather hoard it for a more promising descendant in the future.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
As we walked, I thought about Ning ChenKun. His final words to us had been disappointing, but knowing his situation, I could understand it.
I wouldn’t consider giving him an orb, at least not for now, but I would consider working with him again in the future.
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Instead of taking us to a place in the village as I had expected, Jin led us through the portal to the Metal Peak. Then, she tapped on the stone arch with her identity jade and led us through it once more.
We stepped through into a large cavern with the densest metal qi I had ever experienced.
Like with Emperor Shen’s cave, I saw a lot of half-finished projects and scraps of metal lying around, but I didn’t have time to investigate. Jin led us directly into a side room with a large conference table. After we all took a seat, she tapped a gem in the center of the table.
“We’re shielded. Now, not even a Sovereign can listen in on our conversation. We should only need to worry about the Saint, and I doubt he has even heard of you. The clan representatives who know something strange is going on have almost certainly been doing everything they can to hide it from him.”
I looked at her and Shen. Then, I turned to my friends. I needed to explain things, and I wanted to tell them the whole truth, but I didn’t dare. I would tell them everything I could, and it would all be true, but taking note of how Emperor Li had told me the Earthly Dao communicates, I would add implications that might not be entirely accurate.
“You all know, or suspect, a bit about what’s going on with me. Here’s the truth. Whenever I die, I return to the day I received my blessing. I have a limited amount of control over that, and depending on the circumstances, I can shift that date forward sometimes, but ultimately, I will always return to the day I received my blessing when I was sixteen years old.”
“Wait… What!?”
Everyone had taken my statement in stride except for Cai XiaoYu. Yan put a hand on her shoulder and signaled for her to simply listen.
“It doesn't seem to matter how I die. I’ve experienced many types of deaths over the years, including one that ripped my soul apart. I always return whole and healthy.”
True, but that doesn’t mean I can survive an actual soul death.
“The Earthly Dao has contacted me several times and has even sent its incarnation to speak with me directly once. I have no idea what its plans for me are, but I am confident it has them. From what Emperor Li told me, this means it will provide me with some level of protection, though likely not much. After all, it doesn’t care how many times I die.”
The eyes of everyone in the room widened at this statement. They knew the Dao was involved with blessings, but they had likely only heard of someone meeting the incarnation in stories. I could only hope this information would be enough to dissuade the two powerhouses in the room from getting any ideas about controlling me or simply ending me.
“As Emperor Shen has deduced, in my travels, I acquired a spatial spirit fire seed and am using it to construct a storage space in my soul. This storage space travels back in time with me, allowing me to carry a large number of items with me. In the near future, I expect the volume of this space to begin expanding significantly. This is where the memory orbs come into play. I can store your memories, place the orb into my storage space, and then bring them back to you during the next… cycle. We will all be able to grow without worrying about the passage of time.”
I used the word ‘cycle’ instead of saying ‘my next life’ because I felt making things less personal would help them grapple with the situation better. It wasn’t that I was traveling through time. Maybe events were just cycling. Maybe I really would just be helping them remember a ‘past life’ in a future ‘cycle.’ I didn’t believe that, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.
Heck, for all I knew, this could even be the truth of things.
I thought through what else I should tell them but couldn’t think of anything important that I was willing to share.
“That’s about it. Any questions?”
Cai XiaoYu looked like she was about to burst, but Yan held her back to let Emperor Shen speak first.
“How big has your storage space gotten?”
“Last time I checked, it was a sphere with a radius of roughly two meters. It might have grown slightly since then, but the difference would be marginal.”
He frowned. “That’s not much.”
“Most of the space is taken up with gold, spirit stones, and random pill bottles. The only things of importance are a couple of spirit fire seeds and some of LiTing’s weapons.”
I noticed LiTing shift when I mentioned her name.
Shen tapped his fingers in thought. “We’ll need to revisit this when you have a bit more space. For now, the memory orbs are all that I care about. But what do you care about? What do you want to take back with you?”
I laughed slightly. “Honestly, most of what I carry around hasn’t been overly useful. The money just helps speed things up early on in life. I would like to get my hands on as many spirit fire seeds as possible, but other than that, all I care about is information. I want books.”
I decided to add a little extra information.
“Books don’t need to be carried in my storage space. I’ve developed an ability that lets me store them separately. If I could, I’d pilfer all the books of the sect. I don’t need to keep them. I don’t even need to read them. I just need to touch them. After that, the information is mine forever. Ideally, I would like to get a position as a sect librarian so that I could raid the libraries freely.”
Emperor Shen laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. I can get you into the Earth Peak library, but the other peaks, especially Dragon Peak, will be tough.”
I smiled at the offer. “Let’s talk about it again next time. I’m still developing this ability, and it doesn’t work quite right on Rank 6 books yet.”
Jin cleared her throat. “Speaking of books.”
She reached into her storage space and pulled out a stack of six thick tomes.
“I’ve been made aware of the deal you struck with Shen and old man Li. I want you to carry my memories through time as well. I’m not going to make you my disciple like those fools, but I will give you knowledge on refining equal to what they have provided.”
She slid the books toward me.
“As I understand it, they also allowed you to make a single request of them. Li gave you an invaluable fire seed, and Shen gave you a worthless scrap of paper.” Shen looked abashed at this but didn’t speak up to refute the statement. “I will be more direct.”
She pulled six more books out of her storage space.
“From what Shen has told me, I have a fairly good idea of what you were getting up to in the Earth Peak Trial. These are two sets of techniques for the Warrior Tier. The first is my family's secret cultivation technique. It will let you cultivate metal essence. The second is one I recently acquired. It will let you cultivate lightning essence. Will these gifts be sufficient to purchase my ticket on your trip through time?”
I grinned at her. “More than enough.”
Suddenly, Jin turned predatory, and I realized I had spoken too hastily. I should have been more careful with my words.
“Well then, if it’s more than enough, I would like to make an additional request.” The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement. “Take my granddaughter’s memories with you too.”
“This… I don’t know. Honestly, I’m hesitant to take you along with me. Bringing in people I don’t know involves risks, and the more people I bring, the riskier it becomes.”
Jin’s smile turned wide and ingratiating. “That’s perfect then. You do know her. She was your student, Jin ZiHan. You spent so much time and effort training her. It would be a waste not to let her remember it, wouldn’t it?”
“That might be possible…” In the face of a caring grandmother, it was hard to muster much of an objection. “If I do, I want something else in return. During the next cycle, can you get me into the Metal Peak Trial to cultivate essence even if I’m a member of a different peak?”
Without hesitation, Jin pulled out a coin made from an unknown metal and placed it on top of the books.
“That won’t be a problem. Enter the portal to the Metal Peak while holding this token, and I’ll come to meet you. I’ll start preparing her a memory orb immediately.” She hesitated but continued. “Li said we needed to let you learn to make the orbs on your own, but if you want help, let me know. LiTing is advancing rapidly, but I don’t know when she will be ready for something like that.”
I considered her offer.
It would be years before LiTing was ready to make the memory orbs.
How long had this life already lasted? I started it at the end of our first term as a Martial Master, so I would have been 25? I was now…64? So, 39 years? How had so much time passed?
At the beginning of this life, I only had 45 years left on my 100-year plan. The years LiTing needed to learn Rank 6 refining would carry us past my deadline. Then, I would need to finish up this life without regrets and return to the Wastes.
I had to go back to the Wastes. I needed to repay my debts. But how could I end this life without regrets? There was so much left I wanted to do here.
I looked at my friends sitting around the table. I didn’t want to leave them yet. We never really got to spend a life challenging the sect together. I wanted more time… But… Even if I was the only one who even knew about it, I needed to keep my word. I needed to repay my debts.
My mind raced as I tried to find a solution.
There was one, but… It might not be fair. It might be nothing more than a way to lie to myself, but it was the only option available. I could stick to the letter of my promise, even if I broke the spirit of it.
I could start a new life, no matter how little of the 100-year timeline remained, and finish it to completion. I wouldn’t start anything wholly new. I would use this time to settle things in the sect and have one final life with my friends. We could work together to try and reach the Summit of this damn mountain.
Then. Then, I would return to the Wastes. I was stretching my promise, but I would not break it. I couldn’t allow myself to break it.
Decision made, I looked at Jin with resolve burning in my eyes. I took out six of the blank jade orbs I had made and passed them to her.
“Thank you. I…” I paused to think about what to tell them. “I have a self-imposed time limit in this life. Four more years. After that, I will die and return to the beginning. Then, I want to grab everyone and rush to the Summit as quickly as possible.” I looked from her to Shen. “I could use help from both of you. While I can learn to make the formations myself, I don’t know if I’ll have time to do so properly in this life.”
They both nodded, and Jin moved the orbs to her storage bag.
With Jin and Shen taken care of, I turned my attention to my friends.
“Is there anything you all want to know?”
Yan could no longer hold Cai XiaoYu back.
“Yes! Can… Can I go too? I don’t have anything of value, but…”
I held up a hand to stop her. “Yan knew what this meeting was about, and he trusted you enough to bring you with us. For now, that’s enough.”
She beamed a bright smile at me.
“Fang.” YuLong twitched nervously as he caught my attention. “What about… Can I get memory orbs for my family?”
I did my best to give him a compassionate look. “For now, I want to keep the group that knows about this small. We can look at expanding to others in the future. Until then, you can start studying how best to help them.”
I suddenly thought about how I had just given a spot to Jin’s granddaughter. “If there’s someone important… Let’s wait until the next cycle. If there’s someone important, you can talk with them in the next cycle, and I’ll add them in, but only one. The more we add, the more of a risk we’re taking. Alright?”
He silently nodded his head.
JiaQi’s worried voice was next. “Can… How does your storage space work? Can you take people back with you? Can you take… beasts?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. In the past it wasn’t large enough to try. I don’t know for certain what will happen if I take someone back with me like that.”
She closed her eyes. She was on the verge of tears. “Can you take LuLu back with you? If… If we go back to when we were all sixteen, she won’t exist. She might never exist again. If it doesn’t work… Can you please try?”
I bit my lip and examined the deer closely. LuLu was a giant, but if I moved things around, she should be able to fit. Since I planned to expand my space even further before the end, it wouldn’t be a problem.
“I can try, but I don’t know what will happen.”
“I know. Thank you.”
Tears began to trickle down JiaQi’s cheeks.
I looked at LiTing, but she shook her head.
“Yan?”
He gave me an appraising look. “You said you’ll go back in four years, right? We’ll discuss a test for your storage space at that time. For now…”
He looked at the others in the room. “You should all know that his blessing allowed me to pass on some rather sensitive information. I died a soul death caused by a tribulation from the Heavenly Dao and was brought back to life by his blessing. That’s the situation we’re dealing with.”
Yan’s grin became somewhat manic. “We need to wait until the memory orbs are in place so we’re all safe, but once that’s done, we’ll be in a very interesting position. Personally, I plan to see what I can steal from the Zhuge Clan, and if possible, I’ll go to the Central Continent and raid the Zhu Clan. We’ll have to plan things out carefully, and we can’t rush, but everyone should start thinking about how we can exploit this situation.”
I saw a glint of greed appear in a few eyes.
I held up a hand to stop it. “Certain possibilities can be considered. If the Zhu Clan is as ruthless as you have told me, we can consider it, but I don’t want to hurt innocents. Some of the details about the resets… the cycles… I’m not confident about how it all works. In any case, robbing an evil organization is fine. Robbing an orphanage is off the table.”
Everyone calmed down slightly at my words, but they were still excited. After all, there were more than a few ‘evil organizations’ in the world.
“I know four years isn’t much time, but that’s all I have. Think about how best to spend it to prepare for what’s ahead, because once the next cycle begins, I don’t want to waste any time. Everyone will have orbs to keep their memories safe, so none of our deaths will matter anymore. It will be a time to take risks and see how far we can push things.”
When the meeting ended, everyone rushed away to start preparing. We had a lot of work to do.