The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 358: Life 92, Age 16, Martial Disciple Peak
After Pill Lord Yong’s departure, I left the Hall of the Herb Lord and returned to my apartment. Once there, I sat down on a ratty, old cultivation mat, closed my eyes, and opened up the copy of the Writ of Pill Fire that now existed in my mental library.
I could have used the physical copy that Lord Yong had left with me, but I felt that it would be easier to spot any potential traps by accessing it through my library.
In the abstract, the Writ of Pill Fire wasn’t too different from any other Rank 1 cultivation technique. I just needed to build the right kind of filter, use a vortex to pull in qi, and then use that qi to pierce my acupoints. The difficulty was all in the details.
This writ used the most complex filters that I had ever seen. First, they created two separate streams of purified energy, one of pill qi and one of fire qi. Then, these separate streams were combined into a unified stream of pill fire qi. Finally, this stream of pill fire qi was divided up into small threads and injected into the cultivator’s energy body.
For this technique, energy was pulled in through each of the body’s 361 acupoints, and the way the stream of pill fire qi was divided up and infused into the body was different for each acupoint. From what I could tell, it was the specific pattern in which these infusions occurred that caused the permanent changes to one’s energy body.
This technique required such an insane level of precision that I doubted any normal Martial Disciple could master it. Most people would need to first advance all the way to Peak Grandmaster with a simpler technique to develop the necessary knowledge and experience. Then, they could reset their cultivation base and use what they had learned to cultivate this one properly.
When using such a devilishly complex cultivation technique, even I might cause irreparable harm to my body.
So, was this the trap? Were Jon and Lord Yong just hoping that I would screw up and cripple myself? Maybe, but I wouldn’t put it past them to include a few more layers to this trap of theirs.
“System, aside from the dangers already mentioned by Pill Lord Yong, are there any hidden dangers to cultivating the Writ of Pill Fire that I need to be aware of? That is, is there any information which is not contained in the technique manual that I need to know in order to cultivate it correctly? And if I do cultivate it, are there any dangers that I should be aware of that were not either listed by Lord Yong or spelled out in the manual?”
Purchase confirmed. Cost 4,000 credits.
When cultivating the Writ of Pill Fire, one must draw in pill qi and fire qi in equal measure. If the proportions are off, then one’s cultivation base can become dangerously imbalanced, leading to the complete collapse of one’s energy body.
That… Well, this wasn’t exactly good, but it was something that I should be able to work around.
Was that it? Was Jon’s trap really as simple as just giving me a complex technique that I shouldn’t be able to cultivate properly?
“System… Would… If I cultivate this technique, it is supposed to make it so that I can only cultivate pill fire qi in the future. Will this restriction persist through resets? Will I be able to cultivate a different type of qi in my next life?”
Purchase confirmed. Cost, 900 credits.
Specified restriction affects only the energy body. Such changes will have no lasting effect upon Host’s return to the current reset point.
“What about… Will me cultivating this technique directly impact the success of Jon’s mission?–the one that would be considered successful if I were to teleport away. That is, aside from the inherent risks that I would assume by using a complex cultivation technique, would, for example, my ability to cultivate only pill fire qi help to ensure that his mission was a success?”
Purchase confirmed. Cost 14,000 credits.
No, it is estimated that the changes to Host’s body caused by this technique will have a negligible impact on the success or failure of Yong JinZhan’s mission.
I slumped down and rubbed my forehead. There was no way I would believe that Lord Yong’s purpose in giving me this technique was altruistic, but other than the sheer complexity involved, I just couldn’t understand what he was trying to accomplish.
In the end, did it even matter? The System had verified there weren’t any hidden traps waiting for me. As long as I took things slow and steady, I should be able to cultivate it successfully.
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Still, before starting, I needed to be careful of the one danger that the System had warned me about and which Lord Yong had failed to mention. I needed to ensure that I could always cultivate fire and pill qi in equal measure. While I didn’t expect this to be much of a problem, if the environmental levels of one of these qi types were too low, it would severely hamper the speed at which I could cultivate.
So, I first consumed an Energy Expulsion Pill to eradicate my Peak Disciple cultivation base. Then, using a pair of Peak-Yellow earth qi techniques, I rapidly advanced all the way to Peak Master. Once there, I extracted the filter from the Writ of Pill Fire and used it to create a Rank 3 Qi Gathering Formation that created a bubble of purified fire and pill qi. Finally, I added a series of regulators to this formation that would allow me to both adjust the amount of energy this bubble contained and ensure that the pill qi and the fire qi were always in balance.
Upon activating this formation, I found the final trap: the pill qi in the local environment was incredibly sparse. It wasn’t to the point of not being able to cultivate at all, but without an appropriate Qi Gathering Formation, it might have taken me years to advance to Peak Disciple. Achieving Peak Master before stagnation set in would have been a pipe dream.
Ironically, finding this problem only reassured me that my decision to cultivate the Writ of Pill Fire was correct. I now knew what the trap was, and I had already defused it. There might be others, but I could deal with them when they appeared.
While I was confident in my ability to properly cultivate the Writ of Pill Fire, I still took things slow. Partly, this was to ensure that I didn’t make any mistakes, but more importantly, it was because of the discrepancies in my relevant affinities.
I had a mid three-star fire affinity, but my alchemy affinity had yet to reach even low nine-star. While I was able to create a proper filter using nothing but pure fire qi, trying to manipulate pill fire qi with nothing but my fire affinity caused dangerous fluctuations in the delicate balance of the two types of qi.
By instead focusing on only tapping into my new qi affinity, I was able to keep things under control, but with only a high nine-star affinity, this control was rather lacking. If I wanted to make steady progress, then I would either need a higher qi affinity or a higher alchemy affinity. If there were some kind of combined pill fire affinity, that might work as well, but I doubted that such a specialized affinity would have much long-term value.
I could have purchased the affinities I needed from the System, but I wanted to continue to explore the method of raising my affinities through practice. So, I got to work slowly crafting the filters I needed, one at a time, using nothing but my low-level qi affinity.
With each filter I created, I spent hours meticulously checking for any mistakes. Then, once a filter was set into place and activated, I carefully extracted the threads of pill fire qi and ensured that they flowed to the exact spots that the writ dictated.
Every time I added a filter, I spent two full days examining its effects before moving to the next. At this pace, with 361 acupoints to open, advancing to Peak Disciple would take nearly two full years of effort, but this delay was necessary. Cultivating the Writ of Pill Fire was like performing alchemy. The only difference was that instead of risking the destruction of medicinal energy, I was risking the destruction of my entire energy body.
After opening all the acupoints on my upper right arm, roughly two dozen in total, I was able to advance to Martial Disciple 2. Not only did this give me more qi to work with, but it also allowed my qi affinity to advance to peak nine-star.
At this point, it had been two months since I had last seen Pill Lord Yong, and I hadn’t received any messages requesting my presence. While I wasn’t too concerned about this, I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to use my disappearance against me. So, I took a trip to the Assignment Hall, where an attendant directed me to one of the sixth-floor workshops.
Outside Lord Yong’s workshop, I pulled on the chain which was set into the wall next to the door. This raised a yellow flag inside the workshop, indicating that someone was outside while not disturbing any alchemists who might be in the middle of concocting pills. ƒгeewebnovёl_com
Over an hour later, the door opened, and I was greeted by the sight of Jon’s grinning face. “Fang, why are you just waiting outside!? Lord GeHong was just explaining the basics of alchemy. You should have joined us.”
I barely managed to give him a twitching smile. Not only had waiting outside been proper, but I could see from Jon’s body language that he didn’t mean a word of what he was saying. He was happy that I hadn’t joined them.
When I didn’t respond, ‘Lord GeHong’–the man I knew as Lord Yong–waved a dismissive hand. “It would not have been proper for Apprentice Fang to join us, Young Master–”
Jon cleared his throat loudly and gave Lord Yong a meaningful glare.
Lord Yong flinched and backed up to correct himself. “It would not have been proper… Jon. Apprentice Fang needs more time before he can step onto the true path of cultivation. This is not something that can be rushed.”
After checking in energy vision, I saw that Jon had advanced to Martial Disciple 6 using what looked to be a Profound-Rank fire technique.
I cupped my fists and bowed my head. “Yes. Unfortunately, I have only been able to advance to Martial Disciple 2. I still have a long road ahead of me.”
Lord Yong’s body froze, and he was only able to croak out a single word. “What?”
I bowed my head once more. “I have only been able to advance to Martial Disciple 2, Lord.”
Lord Yong stared at my upper right arm for long moments. Then, he looked at Jon worriedly.
Jon clapped his hands together and gave me a brilliant grin. “Excellent. Excellent!”
He looked at Lord Yong. “This means that he can begin learning alchemy, right? With Brother Fang’s skills, I am confident he will be able to create nine-patterned pills in no time. What do you say, GeHong?”
Lord Yong looked from me to Jon. Then, he lowered his head in a fractional bow. “As you say, Young– Jon.”
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