The Undying Immortal System

I followed Jiao’s advice and began making Rank 1 pills in significant quantities. I started with the Basic Qi Gathering Pill which required only a peony to concoct. At this point, I could turn the flower into a Perfect pill as easily as turning over my hand, but I didn’t.

I didn’t rely on my various affinities, and I did my best to dampen the effects of my strengthened soul. I wanted to simulate being an average Disciple Alchemist working on his first pills.

I had copied dozens of Rank 1 alchemy techniques, and I had studied them enough to know what they did, but I hadn’t used them much, and I certainly never relied on them to make a pill. Now, I was intentionally trying to suppress my abilities as I worked so that I would have to depend on these techniques.

I continued this for several weeks, producing hundreds of pills in that time. None were Perfect, I still didn’t know how to make Perfect pills without using affinities, but I was eventually able to reach 99% effective and High-Purity for every pill.

During this time, Jiao helped take care of ingredient deliveries and pill pick-ups, so I didn’t have to step away. By now, it had become clear what she was. She was my handler, much like Deacon Liu had been when I worked under Elder Mu. I wasn’t sure when that started. Perhaps from the very beginning, she was scouting me out to join the Eyes, but after I was here, her role was obvious. This fact didn’t bother me, though. It allowed me to clearly define what our relationship was and would be.

“Brother Su,” said Jiao one day after the delivery pick-up, “how are you feeling with the Rank 1 techniques? Think you’ll be ready to move up to Rank 2 soon?”

I considered her question from a few angles. The faction leaders probably wanted me to hurry up and make more valuable pills for them. They bought a workhorse, and they wanted it to work. I could sympathize, but those concerns didn’t faze me.

More importantly, was I ready? On the face of it, a few weeks to practice dozens of techniques was wholly inadequate, but I was simply learning to use different tools to accomplish tasks I was intimately familiar with. Once I understood the hows and whys of the new tools, it wasn’t difficult to slot them into my process.

After careful consideration, I finally answered. “Give me one more week. There are a few more tests I want to run at this level, then I will move up to Rank 2 pills.”