The Undying Immortal System

It took me years to perfect the Master Alchemist techniques that existed in the sect. The primary problem came down to managing my fire seed. The sect had several techniques and methods for working with a spirit fire, but I needed to learn to adapt and change them.

During this time, my focus was on alchemy, and that was where I spent almost all my personal time, but I also cultivated to save up enough qi to push myself to Martial Grandmaster 2. This had involved filling my dantian to the limit and compressing it down. Jiao guided me during this, but it wasn’t necessary. Everything went smoothly and I was able to take a step forward.

This advancement made my qi more powerful, so I needed to use less, but I also had to cultivate harder to restore what I did use. In total, I saw no real impact to my efficiency from advancing, so for me, the overall impact was not much. This experience suggested that advancing as a Grandmaster was only impactful for people like fighters, where quick power could be worth more than endurance.

My main task these years had been working for the sect and producing pills for the faction, but everyone always maintained the façade that everything I made was mine and that I was selling it to the sect for contribution points. Because the produced pills were ‘mine,’ I was allowed to send a small portion of them to Bao for him to sell in the outside world.

What I sent him was just a tiny fraction of what I made, since I wanted to maintain my polite fiction with the sect, but a steady supply of nearly perfect Rank 2 pills was a fortune in this part of the world. Bao used the profits to set up an intelligence-gathering organization across the Wastes to gather any information I might find useful.

He couldn’t extend his reach outside, since the economics were completely different outside of the Wastes, but paying dozens of mortals to gather information inside was nearly free when compared to what I could produce.

Significantly more money was spent buying technique manuals. I was surprised to learn that there were only two sects in the Wastes. One, the Twin Mountains, had a group focused on alchemy, while the other, the Verdant Fields Sect, focused on herbalism. The other professions were not represented.

There were only four significant powers within the Wastes. The two sects, the Su Clan, and the Blue Wind Pavilion. Any information about the world outside, or more powerful techniques from the outside world, would have to come from one of them. The two sects didn’t share information with outsiders, and the Su Clan outright rejected overtures from Bao’s people, so the only source of information was the Blue Wind Pavilion. They were willing to sell it, but it didn’t come cheap. Even with my steady stream of Rank 2 pills, Bao was only able to get his hands on a few weak Rank 2 techniques.

Over the years, I gathered a handful of Rank 1 herbalism techniques and a few formations techniques, but nothing about beast tamers or refiners. The few Rank 2 techniques I got were for herbalism. The quality of everything seemed slightly dubious, but I still diligently copied it down. I couldn’t use the information without the appropriate qi, but I had it for the future.