Chapter 271: Life 75, Age 22, Martial Grandmaster Peak
Moving my entire clan out of my storage space and into the surrounding villages took several weeks, and some people, especially the mortal outsiders, were hesitant to leave. For them, access to qi and the ability to cultivate was unimportant. Even if I could give them affinities, most were too old to take advantage of them. They just wanted a place where they would be able to live in peace.
However, after a long discussion with ShouLi and the council, we decided that everyone would have to move out. It would have been nice to use the storage space as a safe place to raise children, but most of the parents wouldn’t be willing to stay in there with them, and I didn’t fancy the idea of needing to constantly transfer people in and out all the time.
As for the mortals, I sympathized with their desire for a safe home, but I expected us to remain in the sect for decades, possibly centuries. Leaving only mortal outsiders inside the space would lead to them viewing it as their rightful homeland, and that would cause problems when I tried to move my people back in once our time here was over.
This resettlement project took a significant amount of time and effort, but the rewards were worth it. While Yan had been correct that generating karmic energy in TongBei would be difficult, adding hundreds of new cultivators to its population had given me enough contribution points to purchase the energy I needed for my initial advancement to Martial Lord. So, after a quick trip to Yellow City, I entered seclusion to prepare for my breakthrough.
However, I didn’t advance immediately.
In the past, when I had improved my comprehension of cultivation techniques to an exceedingly high level, I had noticed that something was… ‘off’ about the Ruler-Tier techniques I was using. I had never been able to figure out what it was, but I wanted to use this opportunity to try and learn more.
How many credits was I willing to spend on this, though?
What else did I need credits for? My personal goals for this life were to master Rank 6 alchemy, formations, and refining. Everything else was secondary. However, the most important of these secondary goals had to be improving my cultivation base as a Ruler.
After considering my options from several different directions, I made my choice.