The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 208: Life 73, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

The place where we appeared could barely be considered ‘secluded.’ While we did arrive in an alley between two buildings, those buildings were two cottages spaced rather far apart. If anyone were looking in our general direction, it would have been easy to see the three of us suddenly pop into existence.

I wanted to complain to the System, but after a quick look around at our surroundings, I understood the problem. We had been sent to a small hamlet that consisted of only a couple of dozen buildings. The place where we arrived wasn’t too hidden, but it might have been the best option available.

While the village itself wasn’t too impressive, the landscape around it was a sight to behold.

It looked as if the entire village was built upon a raft that was floating in the middle of the ocean. Outside the village’s wooden picket fence, the land was a large, flat plain covered in an endless expanse of bright blue flowers. When the wind rustled these flowers, it almost looked like a gentle breeze rippling through the waters.

After taking in the sight for several minutes, I refocused and pulled my companions along behind me as I explored the village.

The entire hamlet only had a single inn, and since the village was rather small, it wasn’t difficult to find. I booked three rooms and then left Bao and SuYin to get settled in as I went out to gather a bit of information.

While the Blue Wind Pavilion had a presence here, it was only a modest one-story shop that sold an extremely limited variety of items. Instead, its main function was to serve as an interface between the sect and the main Pavilion back in Dragon Gate City. After entering, I quickly purchased a basic rundown on the sect and returned to the inn to discuss the situation with Bao and SuYin.

I set up a low-level formation to prevent eavesdropping and then looked at my companions.

“Okay… So… I’ve dragged both of you out of your normal lives, and I’m sure you both have questions. If there’s anything you want to ask, please do so, but we need to discuss what comes next.”

Seeing this, I knew what I had to do first. I placed a pill bottle in front of the young man.

“Bao, this is an Energy Expulsion Pill. Upon consuming it, your current cultivation base will be erased, and you will need to begin cultivating again from scratch.” He seemed confused at why I would offer such a thing, but I just raised a hand to stop him from asking. “Your current cultivation base is… bad, and you are being afflicted by a kind of cultivation madness that makes you extremely trusting. That is why you were so willing to give up everything and follow me. Your cultivation technique is forcing you to trust me.”

Bao just looked confused, but I could see understanding flash across SuYin’s face as she widened her eyes in horror. Again, I raised my hand, but this time it was to stop SuYin from interrupting.

“You both have important decisions to make before we move forward. Bao, this pill will remove the mental effects of your technique. It will allow you to make those decisions with a clear head. Don’t worry about losing any progress, I can help you regain it quickly enough, okay?”

Bao smiled and nodded. “Of course.”

Without another thought, he picked up the bottle, took out the pill, and swallowed it.

Bao’s body shook as all the energy it contained was expelled and dissipated into the surrounding environment. After less than half a minute, he slumped to the floor. While there were no changes to his physical body, his energy body had become little more than a deflated balloon.

SuYin glanced worriedly between the two of us.

“Is… Is he okay now?”

I nodded sadly. “Yes. The cultivation technique he was using will no longer be able to affect his mind, but his memories won’t change, and he will still trust those he has already been made to trust, including me. This is one of the dangers of cultivation. It is one of the easiest traps you can get caught in.”

Once Bao regained his senses, I returned to the topic at hand and laid out what I had learned.

“I have brought you both to the Verdant Fields Sect. If you wish to learn herbalism, this is the best place to do so in the Wastes. There are three ways to join the sect. The first is as a warrior. If you choose this path, you will be trained in combat and sent to guard fields from looters and raiders.”

Neither SuYin nor Bao seemed too interested in this, so I continued.

“The second option is to join as a farmer. You will be given a plot of land and will be required to grow herbs for the sect. You will be able to sell anything you grow for contribution points, and you can use these points to purchase lessons or items from the sect.”

This wasn’t much different from the Twin Mountains Sect’s nominal disciple city, so I was confident Bao would be familiar with the scheme.

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“While anyone can attempt to join under these first two paths, the final path is that of the elite disciple. You will be given a series of tests, and if you prove yourselves worthy, you will be given the best training the sect has to offer. If you excel in this training, you will then be sent out of the Wastes to join the Verdant Forest Sect.”

It was hard to read the two’s reactions, but they didn’t seem as enamored with the idea of leaving the Wastes as I had expected. Likely, this was because their families were still here.

“This is your life. You must decide how you want to spend it. I brought the two of you here because I believe both of you can become skilled herbalists, but I have no intention of forcing you down that path. If you wish to leave, you may do so. If you wish to study something else, I am willing to help you learn. You are free to choose any path you wish to walk, and I will support you.”

In truth, I was enamored with the prospect of hiring SuYin and Bao to tend herbs in my storage space, or at least having them train the future Su Clan residents to do so, but I wasn’t going to force them. I needed to give them the freedom to choose what they wanted to do for themselves.

Bao’s earlier simple affability had vanished with his cultivation technique, and he appeared somewhat lost, so SuYin took control of the conversation.

“I… I don’t have any affinities, and I don’t know how to cultivate.”

I smiled at her. “Don’t worry, I can take care of that. If you want to learn herbalism, I can get you a wood affinity. If you wish to learn alchemy, I can get you a fire affinity.”

I paused in thought before continuing. “I can’t teach you herbalism. We will need the sect’s help for that, but I can teach you to cultivate, and I can teach you a few other professions if there’s something else you want to learn instead. If you become an elite disciple, the sect may want to teach you everything themselves, and you can follow their guidance if you wish, but I wouldn’t recommend it. You might want to learn herbalism from them, but I would suggest learning cultivation from me.”

She slowly lowered her head. “And… what are you going to be doing?”

“I’m joining the sect as a farmer. I’m here to get hands-on experience with herbalism. However… You should know that I’ll only be here for sixteen years, after that, I’ll have to leave, and you two will need to continue without me. If you want to join me when I leave, you can, but it would probably be best for you to continue moving up in the sect and learning everything they can teach you. But don’t worry, I’ll still come by to visit every few years to see how things are going.”

We talked for a little longer, but eventually, SuYin and Bao both chose to follow me and become farmers. Even though Bao’s cultivation base had been dispersed, its effects lingered, and he still trusted me implicitly. SuYin’s faith in me was a bit of a mystery, though.

She had only just met me, and she was willing to follow wherever I led. When I asked about it, all she would say was that her friend told her that she could trust me. After understanding the situation, I was a little worried, but there was nothing to be done about it.

With everyone’s decision made, we needed to register for the sect, but first, I had to make a quick purchase.

“System, boost Bao’s and SuYin’s wood affinity to peak nine-star and increase their herbalism comprehension by a hundred thousand credits each. Also, increase my herbalism comprehension to a total of ten billion.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 10,000,180,285 credits. 744,954,373,487 credits remaining.

The Verdant Fields Sect allowed anyone to register as a new farmer at any time, so there was no need to wait around for any kind of entrance exam.

After paying a small fee of 30 silver, we each received a lease for a small plot of land and a large bag of peony seeds, but we weren’t given jade badges to mark us as members of the sect. To earn such tokens, we would first need to grow a crop of flowers and bring them back to the sect. We could then sell the flowers for enough points to buy a badge.

When we arrived at the barren lands that now belonged to us, I couldn’t help but shake my head. All our sign-up fee had gotten us was a lease to a fallow field and a bag of cheap seeds. If we ran off and didn’t return, the sect would have only profited from the exchange.

Each of our fields included a small shack for us to live in, but these buildings were old and broken. Sleeping in them would have been no better than sleeping outdoors. If we wanted something better, we would have to build it ourselves.

At the sight of these living conditions, SuYin became more focused and resolved. She wanted to become a cultivator, and she was more than willing to endure such hardships. Bao, on the other hand, looked slightly depressed. He had to be worried that he had made a mistake by following me and leaving his cozy life behind.

While the sect might not care about our comfort, and while others might consider suffering hardships to be a character-building exercise, I had no desire to live in a rotten shed, and I wouldn’t expect my two new disciples to do so either.

After we arrived, while Bao helped SuYin learn the basics of cultivation, I took out various Rank 2 and 3 pills and formations and used a Peak-Yellow earth qi technique to cultivate as quickly as possible. Having used overpowered pills and formations, I was able to reach Martial Master 5 after only a single week. My cultivation base was about as bad as it had ever been, but that was of little concern.

With my body now brimming with power, I used a series of earth qi techniques to carve a simple cave system under the soft loamy soil of my field. I also made small, tidy caves for SuYin and Bao under their own broken-down huts so that they would both have separate living spaces for whenever they wanted a bit of privacy. While their dwellings were simple one-room affairs, mine was a rather spacious complex of training rooms and sleeping quarters.

Carving these caves into the soft soil of the fields took nothing more than a thought, but hardening the walls into solid stone was significantly more difficult, and it took me another two weeks to get everything just the way I wanted it. Then, I went to the Pavilion and ordered an assortment of simple furnishings to make our new homes more livable.

Once our housing situation was taken care of, I returned to my new cultivation cave and swallowed an Energy Expulsion Pill to clean out my trainwreck of a cultivation base. I had already decided that in this life, I would use the wood essence cultivation technique I had gotten from the Red Forest Sect. It would give me access to wood qi while also allowing my wood affinity to slowly rise over time.

I considered trying to create something new by combining it with either the water or fire essence technique, but after a bit of thought, I held off on doing so. Creating something like that would take a long time to get right, and I didn’t want to spend my time on it at the moment. Instead, I wanted to train my new disciples and learn the basics of herbalism.