The Undying Immortal System

The first sight of my new factory left me standing with my mouth agape. I’d been told that it was ready to begin installing the formations, and I had assumed that meant the building was complete. Instead, what I saw could only be called a building if I was being generous. In reality, it was little more than a shell.

The island expansion was still underway, and only the area that was needed for the factory had been entirely completed. No permanent roads had been built, but there was at least a shoddy wooden path that could allow limited wagon traffic to and from the factory.

The building itself looked like the worst example of brutalist architecture I’d ever seen. There were zero adornments, and the walls were solid, raw stone. The windows had no glass, and the floors were bare rock. It was in rough condition, but it was a starting point. While there was still a lot to do to make the building usable, it would at least allow me to begin working.

I met Minister Tang and a representative from the Hu clan to discuss how to move forward with the construction. When I entered the factory, I was struck dumb by the density of qi inside. I hadn’t noticed anything before walking in the door, but as soon as I entered, the incredibly qi-dense environment created by the formation under the building felt nearly overpowering. When the Hu clan representative saw my expression, he chuckled.

“This is your first time experiencing a Rank 4 Qi Gathering Formation, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Yes, it’s very impressive,” I replied. “I didn’t even notice it from the outside.”

The representatives gave a light snort. “That’s because the formation is full, so it can’t draw in any more qi. Once your production lines are up and running, they’ll start using up the qi here, and there’ll be no way you can miss it when the formation really gets going. It’s designed to pull in qi from above, so it should only have a limited impact on the area directly surrounding us, but you probably won’t want to use this neighborhood for cultivation in the future.

I looked to Minister Tang to get his impression. “Is this going to affect the plans for this area?”

“No, Lord,” he responded quickly. “The existing buildings are all warehouses, so they’re not going to be affected by this formation, and we can use the new land for mortal workshops which do not need qi. This might upset some people if they have to move to the edge of the island, but having close access to distribution warehouses should mollify them.”