The Undying Immortal System

The Hu clan eagerly took over the task of researching and improving my automated alchemy factory design. Our agreement was simple. They would provide the formation expertise, and I would support them with my alchemy knowledge. At the end of the project, a comprehensive manual would be produced to explain everything we created, and we would each get a copy to use as we pleased.

While I had only showcased the formations for Nutrition Pills in our first meeting, I had also prepared diagrams for three other Rank 0 pills in high demand among the lower classes. The key traits they had in common were that they all only needed a single herb and each of those herbs contained robust medicinal energy, so less precision would be required. I mentioned the need to look at ways to combine energies from multiple herbs, but everyone agreed that we should develop working assembly lines for these four pills first.

The hardest part of the process was the purification assembly. I had a hard time creating such a thing, and the Hu clan had a hard time understanding why I did things the way I did. With Nutrition Pills, it wasn’t too bad because the toxins seemed to want to vaporize when touched with the slightest bit of qi, but actual technique was needed with most other herbs, and that needed to be replicated in the formations.

I had long discussions with a Lord and several Grandmasters from the Hu clan, and they seemed to understand what would be needed for our target pills, but it would take them time to refine my designs. I offered to stay and help them with the research, but they made it clear that I would be in the way. I didn’t have the background in formations necessary to assist them.

I wanted to argue about that, but after a bit of self-reflection, I realized it was true. I should let the professionals handle things and not get in their way. There was a risk they would try to cheat me, but our agreement, sworn on the Oath Stone, was sound enough that I didn’t have to worry. The most they could do was develop the technology in novel directions and not share the additional information with me, but that didn’t cross my bottom line.

The Hu clan’s involvement meant I no longer had to personally focus all my attention on this project, and while Minister Tang was hard at work building my factory, he would still need weeks or months to complete it. All of this meant that I could finally set aside my obsession with automation, at least for a time.

I wanted to advance to Martial Lord so I could begin learning Rank 4 alchemy, but at my current rate of karmic energy production, I estimated it would take several more months. I considered trying to force the issue by randomly choosing people from my city and giving them countless cultivation pills but eventually decided it wasn’t a good idea. It might be worth trying it someday to see how rapidly I could generate karmic energy, but if I was going to do it, it would be better to do it near the end of my term, not at the very beginning.

With my active projects put on hold for the moment, I had a bit of freedom to pursue other studies.

Learning more about general governance would be helpful, and it would have many applications for future lives here or elsewhere. I already had ideas for economic reforms, and based on my experiences in the Su clan and elsewhere, I could only guess that any justice system in this world would need a large overhaul to come anywhere close to being what I would consider ‘just.’ In Eight Flower, though, that wasn’t seen as a Lord’s responsibility. My ministers would have a fit if I started meddling in day-to-day operations, and they might elevate it above my head.