The Undying Immortal System

As a low-level Martial Disciple, I was nearly entirely blind to everything that was happening on the mountain. Before doing anything else, I needed to fix that, and that meant advancing.

After my previous experience, I was hesitant to continue cultivating the Writ of Wood-Burned Earth. The process was far too painful. However, I needed access to the types of qi it would grant me, and I needed to expand my knowledge of and experience with such high-level techniques.

So, setting my jaw in determination, I got to work.

As I did so, I considered using some form of alchemical poison to dull the pain of advancing. With the herbs that I had stashed away in my storage space, there had to be something that I could concoct to block the sensation of burning myself alive. However, doing this would make properly cultivating the technique significantly more challenging since, if my body were numb, it would be much more difficult to sense my qi and acupoints. So, in the end, I decided to push through on my own.

Advancing to Martial Disciple 5 by cultivating fire qi in my upper left arm was a simple matter and caused no issues. In contrast, when I cultivated wood qi in my lower left arm to advance to Martial Disciple 6, I was left moaning on the floor in agony. This time, there wasn’t even a rush of earth qi to stabilize me afterward.

Continuing to push forward in this state wasn’t an option, but I didn’t need to.

By combining the wood qi from my lower arms, I would have enough energy to connect to a few of the smaller roots that I had previously spread throughout the mountain and listen in on what was happening out there. This connection wouldn’t last long, but it would be enough to help me better understand where things stood.

So, after taking a Shadowed Soul Pill, I climbed all the way to the top of the mountain and walked out onto the plateau. From there, I walked over to my house, used my real identity token to connect to the sect-protecting formation, and gained access to the secret underground cultivation chamber that sat at the center of my root network.

I spent the next few hours pinging important places around the sect, using my limited qi to quickly check for any noteworthy gatherings of important individuals. When I finally found what I was looking for, I was happy to see that it was in the house right above me. I would be able to monitor the situation with only a modest expenditure of qi.