The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 458 – Life 117, Age 21, Martial Master Peak

As I allowed myself to breathe and regain a measure of calm, I took stock of the rocky mountain slope where we had appeared.

The only groups present were those that had fought beside us during the final days of the beast tide. Those that had remained at our side were all slumped on the ground next to me, while those that had retreated earlier were huddled in a nearby clearing, tending their wounds. Further up the mountain, an elder dressed in the black and silver robes of the Sect Affairs Bureau sat on a cultivation mat, silently meditating.

Behind this elder lay an arc of nine formation discs, each one etched with a unique pattern of inscriptions that I couldn’t identify. Above these discs hovered compact, swirling storms of energy, each one as strange and unique as the formation that bound it.

YuLong glanced at me for permission, then began walking up the slope to gather more information. However, he didn’t get far before an invisible barrier blocked his path, preventing him from approaching the elder.

Realizing this was why everyone was sitting around in that clearing, I brought our people to join them.

Over the next few hours, several more cultivators appeared at the bottom of the slope. They were bloody and exhausted, with most having lost their weapons, but they were alive.

During this wait, there was an occasional flash of light from the energy storms behind the elder. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. However, after a second and third flash, I was certain. With each flash, the storms grew slightly more powerful, and I didn’t like what that implied.

Finally, after one last flash from the energy storms, the elder exhaled, opened his eyes, and stood up to address us.

“You are to be congratulated. Of the 3,846 cultivators who entered the Shattered Blades Realm, you are all that remain. Now it is time for your reward.”

A low murmur rippled through the survivors, equal parts pride and bitterness.

The elder gestured toward the nine formation discs. “Your fellow competitors have perished, but their legacy remains. These formations contain what remains of their latent talent. It is their final gift to you. A gift that will take you one step closer to true greatness.”

His gaze swept across the line of energy storms. “This gift is not free, however. You have all accrued points from killing demon beasts. You may spend as many of these points as you wish to improve your talents and enhance your affinities.”

He paused to let these words sink in. Then, he waved a hand, and a golden passageway that hummed with quiet pressure slowly appeared.

“This passage leads to the Heroes Treasury. When you are finished enhancing your talents, the leader of each group may enter and purchase a single item. However, once you leave this place, you will not be allowed to return. The moment you enter the treasury, you surrender any further enhancements to your talents. If you find nothing of interest inside, any unspent points will be wasted.”

He looked at each of us in turn. “Choose carefully. The treasury contains extraordinary items, but in the end, they are nothing but external tools. Your talents and affinities are far more important. They are the only things that can never be taken from you.”

For most groups, this was an impossible dilemma. Saving points for the treasury was a gamble. They didn’t know what was inside, and they didn’t know what anything cost. Worse, they could only purchase a single item. If they used all their points to buy a powerful weapon, who would get it? The group’s leader? What about everyone else?

Why not split the points? Spend some to raise everyone’s affinities. Save some to buy an item from the treasury. How many points were worth saving, though? If they saved too little, they wouldn’t be able to buy anything. If they saved too much, they would have points left over. Either way, they would be wasting precious points.

That said, my concerns were somewhat different.

With the System, I could improve my people’s talents and affinities whenever I wished. Purchasing the items in the treasury wasn’t so easy. Even if I had the credits to afford them, what would the Bureau say if they saw me using them?

So, what was I supposed to do? Save everything for the treasury, and use the System to reward my people later? I could do that, but how would my sect members react to that? I could tell them I used my blessing to enhance their talents, but with no way to measure a person’s talents, would they believe me?

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My people deserved a reward, but what? And how should I give it to them?

As my thoughts churned, my eyes drifted to the nine formation discs. These discs were intended to boost our talents and affinities, with each disc representing one of the domain’s nine weapons. The energy they contained had to be essence, but how did they use essence to enhance a person’s talents?

I wasn’t the only one intrigued by this. A tense silence settled in as everyone watched each other, wondering who would be the first to take the elder up on his offer.

Eventually, urged on by the cultivators around her, a Martial Master who had lost the rest of her group stepped forward. After paying the elder a few dozen points, she stepped onto the spear formation and sat down in the lotus position.

Unlike the Trials in the Nine Rivers Sect, the formation didn’t simply flood this woman’s body with essence. Instead, it injected the essence into her acupoints in short, tightly controlled bursts.

I glanced over at Meng LuYao, silently asking if she could detect any changes in the woman’s talent, but LuYao just shook her head. If the formation wasn’t improving her talent, then what was it doing?

Taking a few steps forward, I approached the guandao formation and activated my analysis ability.

Rank 5 Essence Infusion Formation (Guandao)

I looked over at the young woman in the spear formation. The way the energy entered her acupoints and simply disappeared… It reminded me of an essence cultivation technique. If that were the case…

In general, I preferred not to use my blessing as an easy way to commit theft. Everything else aside, it potentially meant creating timelines that would be rather dangerous for anyone I left behind. However, these were simple Rank 5 formations. Would the Saint of Heroes even know they were missing?

Making my choice, I connected to an avatar in my inner world. “System, give me two temporary reset points.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 credit. 57,954 credits remaining.

Considering that I was about to enter the Heroes Treasury, it might have been a good idea to purchase more than just two. However, the Earthly Dao wasn’t fond of repeated deaths, and I didn’t want to leave too many reset points hanging around.

Purchase made, I walked to the center of the arc of formation discs, reached out with my soul and spatial affinity, and swept them all into my inner world, including the essence storms that were still roiling above them. Then, not giving the elder a chance to react, I sent a poison pill straight into my mouth, erasing the evidence of my crime.

You have died.

After stepping back a few moments in time, I turned away from the formation discs, walked back down to the clearing, and rejoined the rest of my sect.

I gave my elders a single shake of my head. “Save your points for the treasury.”

The reaction from my sect members was mixed. Many wore disappointed expressions as they stared at the formation discs with open longing. However, I had no intention of explaining myself, and my elders knew enough not to question me.

My actions made several of the other groups hesitate. But when that first woman finished her time in the formation and immediately paid for more, their doubts vanished. In near-perfect unison, they all rushed forward to join her.

Meanwhile, I reached into my inner world, pulled out the pile of weapons that I had collected, and passed them out to our Disciples. “Hold onto these for me. I’m not sure where that passage leads, but from the look of that passageway, I’m guessing the treasury isn’t actually in this realm. I’ll come and collect them once we’re on the other side.”

I wasn’t sure if anyone had noticed this little exchange, but if they had, it should reinforce the idea that my blessing’s storage ability didn’t work across worlds. This would, hopefully, lower their guard and make my trip to the Heroes Treasury a little smoother.

When the final cultivator exited their chosen formation, the elder lifted a hand, and a black portal appeared next to the golden one. “The leader of any group that still has points may now enter the treasury. Everyone else must take this exit portal and return to the Heroes Domain.”

I glanced over at YuLong and the others. “Focus on buying knowledge. Cultivation techniques. Martial techniques. Anything that looks interesting. Don’t worry about resources.”

After a round of nods, we followed the elder’s instructions and began walking toward the golden passageway. However, right as we were about to enter, the elder raised a hand to stop us.

“As survivors of the Shattered Blades Realm, you have the opportunity to purchase access to greater, more challenging trials.” A square red-gold token flashed between his fingers. “For 1,000 points, you may purchase access to the Howling Gorge Realm, with each token granting entry to five Grandmasters.”

He then produced a slightly larger purple-gold token. “For 10,000 points, you may purchase access to the Hall of Deeds, with each token granting access to five Lords and ten Grandmasters. Each group may only purchase a single token for each realm.”

Looking down at my bracer, I found that I had just over 11,000 points. Buying these tokens would leave me with practically nothing to spend within the treasury. I had a hard time believing that this was a coincidence.

Our only reward for completing our sect’s Heavenly Ascension had been entry into the Shattered Blades Realm. The idea of leaving this place with nothing but access to two further trials was more than a little distasteful. So, shaking my head, I bypassed the elder and entered the treasury.