The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 475 – Life 120, Age 41, Martial Grandmaster Peak

During times of war, both the Central Continent and the Nine Rivers Continent observed the same social contract. Invading armies did not target a city's mortal population. In return, after a city was conquered, the mortals would immediately swear allegiance to the city's new Ruler. This allowed the mortals to live their lives without needing to worry about the games of the powerful, and it allowed Rulers to fight over territory without needing to worry about having enough people to generate karmic energy.

In the Heroes Domain, where cultivators weren’t allowed to live in cities, mortals might not even notice when control passed from one faction to another. The only thing that would change was the insignia on the guards’ uniforms.

In the Nine Rivers Domain, however, things were more complicated. Powerful clans and families were deeply entrenched in every city, with estates, businesses, and alliances tying them to the local order. Whenever a city’s Ruler changed, these factions would either need to pay homage to their new Lord or leave, reshaping the city’s political and economic landscape in the process.

When wars were fought within the domain, this choice wasn’t too difficult. Few were willing to uproot their entire clan over a change in their city’s leadership. We, however, were foreigners, and paying homage to us would mean betraying their domain.

After taking control of Black Eagle City and its surrounding territories, our first order of business was dealing with these entrenched Master- and Grandmaster-level forces. We could have slaughtered them outright, but doing so might have provoked retaliation from the armies that had invaded the Heroes Domain. Instead, we allowed them to buy their lives and leave our territory unharmed.

While the resources we gained from this were of little value to the members of our sect, injecting them into our new cities would greatly increase the amount of karmic energy they generated.

The only issue was that we needed to keep a close watch on these forces until they left. So, Kan assigned several teams to each city to maintain order and ensure that no one slipped away without paying their ransom.

Our strongest cultivators were still just Grandmasters, so holding Grandmaster-level forces in check was a little troublesome. Fortunately, this would soon become a non-issue.

As our Sect Master, Kan was the official leader of our invasion, and none of our fighters were allowed to have a higher cultivation base than him. Thus, once all threats had been removed, we funneled our resources into Black Eagle City and used jade slips to spread a variety of high-quality cultivation techniques.

Such rapid development carried serious risks, as it could leave large numbers of people with severe mental imbalances. However, it was the quickest way to generate the energy Kan needed to ascend to Martial Lord. Once our position was more stable, we could come back and clean up the damage.

Four months after conquering Black Eagle City, Kan completed his breakthrough.

This opened us up to attacks from King-level forces, so the moment Kan’s breakthrough was confirmed, I ordered one hundred Grandmasters to swallow their Ascension Pills, giving us a hundred new Martial Lords. The Nine Rivers Domain had several powerful Martial Kings, but none of them could field more than a hundred Lords on a moment's notice.

Unfortunately, this also depleted our low-level combat strength. I wanted to rush out and conquer another five cities, giving us enough territory to establish a kingdom. But since our new Lords weren’t allowed to fight against the Nine Rivers’ Grandmasters, further conquests had to be put on hold.

Instead, we focused on developing the cities we already controlled, establishing local forces to serve as external support, and recruiting more Disciples from my inner world.

Over the next 10 years, our development was relatively uneventful. We didn’t conquer any more cities, nor did anyone of note come to challenge us. There were a few minor skirmishes, but those amounted to little more than border clashes with nearby Lords.

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The only real disappointment was that Jon didn’t react to our provocations. We had carved away a sizable portion of his clan’s territory, yet his army remained rooted in the Heroes Domain.

Every so often, we uncovered spies attempting to gather information on our sect, but none of them could grasp the true scope of what we were building.

Each year, Kan and YuLong recruited locals from the lands surrounding Black Eagle City, while JiuLi and Meng LuYao recruited Disciples from the settlements near Pale Mist Mountain. Together with those we recruited from the Su and Shi Clans, our total intake was 500 new Disciples every year. And after enhancing my muscles and advancing my body cultivation to Rank 4, I could travel between the city and the mountain in only a matter of weeks, allowing me to move these Disciples back and forth between the city and the mountain without attracting unwanted attention.

Our herbalists and alchemists ensured that our recruits were supplied with as many Attunement and Qi Gathering Pills as their bodies could handle, and our hunters ensured that Rank 4 Ascension Pills were available to everyone who reached Peak Grandmaster. Since the number of wild Peak Rank 3 beasts was limited, these hunters mostly operated in my elemental planes, but they remained active enough outside to keep anyone from questioning the origin of our resources.

The only blemish on those peaceful years came when we learned that the Demon Lord had advanced. The leader of the Li Clan’s invasion had become a “Demon King.” And now that we were invaders ourselves, he wouldn’t need to worry about the difference in our cultivation bases when attacking us.

I wasn’t afraid of most King-level forces, but Jon was an exception. Ordinary Kings weren’t much of a threat, but I had no idea how powerful his blessing might have made him over the past few decades. The only way to ensure victory was to raise our cultivation high enough to suppress him.

We needed to grow stronger before he could consolidate his forces. So, after ten years of relative peace, we returned to the path of war.

Keeping Black Eagle City at the center of our territory, we launched simultaneous assaults on the five nearest cities, including the capitals of the Ten-Colored Eagle Kingdom and the Proud Eagle Kingdom. That brought us into direct conflict with the Rulers of both kingdoms, but such a clash was unavoidable. Better to eliminate those threats early than allow them any more time to prepare.

More importantly, by seizing these capitals, we gained access to valuable fields and mineral deposits. Proud Eagle City even came with its own Inferior Dragon Vein.

With ten cities under our control, we could now establish our own kingdom. However, we had no intention of stopping at just ten. Instead, we rallied our forces and pressed the offensive, invading every nearby kingdom and taking control of another forty-three. I would have preferred to seize enough territory to found an empire, but we only had three hundred Lords under our command, and holding these fifty-three cities was already stretching our forces a bit thin. Better to regroup, consolidate, and fortify our holdings before pushing any deeper.

Still, with the resources of five entire kingdoms flowing into our hands, we quickly generated enough karmic energy for all of our Premier Disciples to forge their cores and become true Martial Lords. And before long, we would have enough for them to advance to Martial King.

The only thing limiting our continued growth was access to Ascension Pills. Peak Rank 4 Demon beasts were rare, and without them, I couldn’t craft Rank 5 Ascension Pills.

The problem was simple: Rank 4 Demon beasts needed to consume the flesh of cultivators to advance. In the wild, where cultivators and beasts existed in a state of constant conflict, Peak Rank 4 beasts were not unheard of. However, since no cultivators ever died within my elemental planes, none of the beasts there were able to advance. The only Rank 4 beasts present were those that I had created with karmic energy, and such beasts were suitable for use in alchemy.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been a serious bottleneck, but our war against the Nine Rivers Domain offered a solution.

Every battle left behind dozens of dead enemy Grandmasters. Rather than let these corpses go to waste, I sent them into my inner world and fed them to the Demon beasts living there, allowing those beasts to advance.

If anyone discovered what I was doing—if they realized that I was not simply burning these bodies as was customary—they might accuse me of being in league with the Devil Saint. Few would condone the use of corpses to nurture demon beasts, and fewer still would approve of doing so for the sake of obtaining a few more Ascension Pills.

Of course, everyone on the continent would have done the same if given the opportunity. They would just do it in secret and hope that no one ever found out.

I cared little for the sanctity of my enemies’ corpses, but I had no intention of letting that become public knowledge. So, I simply stuffed the bodies into my inner world and allowed the beasts there to feed on them at their leisure. Then, whenever a Peak Rank 4 beast appeared, I sent in a team of Lords to collect it.

5 years later, everything was finally in place, and Kan began his breakthrough to Martial King.

We were still half a decade behind the Demon King, but the situation was no longer what it had once been. With the resources we now had at our disposal, Kan’s breakthrough was only the beginning. Soon, an entire army of Kings would rise behind him.