The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 481 – Life 120, Age 58, Martial Lord Peak

Mei led me through a hanging curtain of thick canvas into a smaller chamber attached to the side of the main tent. There, the formality of the audience hall gave way to a single low table flanked by cushioned stools. A kettle of lukewarm tea and several sealed maps sat forgotten on the table, while a shallow brazier painted the chamber in wavering light.

At first glance, the chamber seemed rather shabby. The rugs were thick but plain, their edges uneven where they met the packed earth, while the canvas walls bore faint stains and creases from hard use on campaign. But the longer I looked, the less convincing that impression became.

Fine threads had been worked into the rugs and tent cloth that were nearly impossible to notice unless one was searching for them. Lines no thicker than silk glimmered in the firelight, weaving through the fabric in careful patterns designed to block qi and blur sound. This was a chamber for high-level meetings within the war camp, built to shield its occupants from the senses of any uninvited guests.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then, Mei gestured to the stool opposite her. “Sit.”

After waiting for me to do so, she folded her hands on the table and met my eyes. “Supreme Elder Su, before we begin, I must make one thing clear. The Li Clan has given me a great deal of help over the years, and I owe Elder Li GuiYang my unreserved loyalty. The clan has its internal disputes, as does any great clan, but I will not betray them.”

For a moment, I could only stare. Weren’t we supposed to be negotiating my surrender? Wasn’t she meant to be trying to recruit me? How had this conversation suddenly transformed into me trying to recruit her?

“My faction emerged victorious in our war,” she continued. “Therefore, any discoveries my people and I make in body cultivation must first be handed over to the Nine Rivers Domain. Additionally, I have entered into agreements with certain external parties, agreements which will be honored. Only once these obligations have been met can I consider transferring knowledge to the other domains, such as your Heroes Domain. Body cultivation is important to everyone, but everything must happen in its proper order.”

As I processed what Mei was saying, I understood.

Mei wasn’t talking to me. She was talking to our unseen eavesdroppers. The formations woven into this tent might have been enough to stop Lords and Kings, but to Sovereigns and Saints, such protections were no more substantial than tissue paper.

Mei was making her position clear to everyone who might be listening. She was reassuring the Nine Rivers Domain that she would not defect, telling her allies that she intended to keep her promises, and making it clear to her former enemies that they would not be left empty-handed.

Letting a brief silence stretch between us, I considered my reply. How did I want to be perceived by our unknown observers?

“While I do not have a deep, personal connection to the Heroes Domain, the Sect Affairs Bureau has treated us well over the years. I have no reason to work against them, and I do not intend to sever ties with them unilaterally. As long as they continue to provide appropriate benefits, the knowledge I gain will be shared with the leaders of the Heroes Domain before anyone else.”

Perhaps I should have pledged my undying loyalty to the Saint of Heroes, but would anyone have believed such protestations? By honestly stating my position, I gave the Bureau a clear path forward, one built on open negotiation rather than empty words.

Mei gave me a small smile, then nodded.

“As far as I am aware, our two forces are the foremost experts in body cultivation on the entire continent. By working together, we might be able to progress far more quickly.” Her eyes held mine, calm and level. “To explain why I say this, I need to share part of my background. If we are to discuss cooperation, then you should understand both the advantages and the limitations of working with me.”

I gave her a small nod for her to continue.

“I was not born on the Extreme Martial Continent,” she said. “I come from the Nine Rivers Saint’s Small World. A year or so after I received my blessing, Elder Li GuiYang brought me, along with several other youths, out into the wider world.”

I motioned for her to continue, having already expected as much.

“Soon after arriving, I encountered a young man with an unusual blessing. By chance, we ended up competing against one another to see who could sell the most pills. I won.” Her expression didn’t change, but there was a faint tightening around her eyes, as though the memory carried a bitter edge. “Shortly afterward, he died, and his blessing transferred to me. Ever since, I have been compelled to complete certain… missions, including the mission to defeat you and your sect in this recent war.”

That… that was something I hadn’t considered. Every time I defeated Jon, my System displayed the same message: External entity requesting access. Mei must not have been so lucky.

Mei had defeated Jon and absorbed his Ultimate Rival System. Then, she was given a mission to defeat me. Did that mean…

“The details are of little importance,” Mei continued. “The key point is that, by completing these missions, I can earn copies of even more blessings. Sometimes, I copy a blessing in its entirety. More often, I am limited to a single feature or one particular aspect of the blessing.”

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I leaned back, watching her more closely. Information about Jon’s blessing was valuable, but I had a hard time focusing on it. Mei had a mission to defeat me and my sect. What reward had she been given for completing it?

“Over the next several years, I copied several minor blessings, none of which were overly useful. Eventually, I stumbled upon a blessing that taught me a body cultivation technique. This technique was extremely crude, and the blessing didn’t come with any insights into its underlying principles, leaving me with no clear way to improve it.”

Her gaze drifted briefly toward the brazier. “After that, every mission I completed yielded fragments of knowledge that refined my understanding of the technique. Then, with the backing of certain interested parties, I forged these fragments into a complete framework for cultivating one’s body.”

I said nothing, and after a moment she continued.

“For a time, everything appeared to be progressing smoothly. However, not long after my team succeeded in developing an enhanced Rank 1 cultivation technique, I learned that all the blessings I had been relying on were only temporary. One day, they would disappear. We would, of course, retain records of everything we had uncovered, but our ability to make further discoveries would be greatly diminished.”

She looked at me, her eyes filled with meaning. “You were the key to solving this problem. By defeating you, I gained the right to make three of my copied blessings permanent.”

Her fingers folded neatly atop the table. “Of course, while retaining three of these blessings will indeed be useful, losing the others will still be a significant blow. Therefore, Supreme Elder Su, I would like to invite you to work alongside me. With your help, I believe that, even if I personally make no further progress, both my domain and the continent as a whole can continue to advance.”

As I worked through the meaning behind Mei’s words, I responded offhandedly, offering our unseen eavesdroppers a few scraps of unimportant information.

“No one in my sect possesses a blessing that can help you unlock any new secrets of body cultivation, but that hardly matters. I studied the experiments you left behind at Blackblade Hall. This gave me enough information to replicate what you were trying to do, even without the help of a blessing. I am confident in my ability to keep moving forward without external assistance. To a point, at least.”

Mei’s eyes sharpened with interest, though it seemed somewhat feigned.

“I had already suspected as much,” she said. “But would you truly turn down additional resources? Join the Nine Rivers Domain and work with me. You will be given all the resources you could desire. No longer will you need to make do with what scraps the Sect Affairs Bureau allows you access to.”

As I opened my mouth to respond, Mei held up a hand to stop me.

“You possess your own Small World, do you not? An independent space created by your blessing? A place where we can speak in true privacy?”

I stared at Mei, then let my gaze drift around the room, idly wondering how many hidden portals might be surrounding us. Was this why Mei had declared her loyalty up front? Had that been what she needed to do to secure a private conversation with me?

As I raised a hand to send her into my inner world, Mei spoke up to stop me.

“I must warn you that allowing others into your Small World is not without risk. Once someone advances to Martial Sovereign, they can open a portal to any place they have previously visited. If I fail to recruit you, I am supposed to recruit a talented member of your sect, someone who has entered your Small World and possesses the potential to advance to Sovereign. The Li Clan would then be able to use this person to seize your world and claim it as their own. If you allow me to enter, there will be no need for such a circuitous approach. When the time comes, I will be able to open the portal myself.”

I smiled, waved a hand, and pulled Mei inside. If the Li Clan thought they could seize my inner world, they were in for a nasty surprise. Unlike a normal Small World, mine was located deep within my soul, giving me far greater authority over it than anyone would expect.

Still, I had no intention of letting Mei see Chang’an, nor would I let her anywhere near the karmic groves on the Plane of Woody Earth. Instead, I sent her, the table, and the pot of lukewarm tea to a remote mountaintop on the Plane of Earth.

The moment she appeared, her eyes widened as she silently took in the black mountains and the strange, void-like sky. Others might think that her shock came from being teleported to an entirely new world. I knew better. What really shocked her was the fact that her connection to her blessing had just been severed.

Before I could count to three, Mei had already regained control of herself. Her expression smoothed over, and she turned to face the figure opposite her. Then, she stood, circled the table, and passed a hand through my torso.

“A projection?” she asked. “We assumed you were contacting people in your Small World through some form of communication formation. This is rather unexpected. How are you able to maintain a full projection through the barrier between worlds?”

When I offered no response, Mei gave me a rueful smile, as though she had expected nothing else.

“I asked for privacy because there are a few details I needed to clarify,” she said. “The blessing I inherited from that young man gives me missions. If I complete them, I receive a reward. If I fail, I die. That much is true. However, none of my rewards have ever disappeared. As far as I can tell, they are all permanent. The only reason I have to suspect otherwise is the reward I received for defeating your sect. Why offer to make my rewards permanent if they were permanent to start with?”

She looked me up and down, trying to read my reaction. “After you conceded defeat, I received a new mission: to recruit you and create a lasting alliance with you and your sect. Unlike every other mission I’ve been given, this one has no penalty for failure. Its reward is the ability to retain my memories, permanently.”

My mouth opened before I could stop it, shock breaking through my composure.

“The description of the reward contains a clarification, which again is extremely unusual. I will retain my memories, but not the growth of my body, soul, or cultivation base.”

I sat in silence, unsure how to respond.

Mei watched me for a moment, then spoke in the same calm tone as before. “I ask you plainly: are you willing to join the Nine Rivers Domain? Are you willing to build a lasting alliance with me?”

I had no answer. The implications were too broad, the stakes too high.

Seeing my hesitation, Mei gave a slight nod. “No need to answer immediately. There is no time limit. Think it over. When you’ve made your final decision, let me know.”

With our conversation temporarily at an end, I sent Mei out of my inner world, left the war camp, and made my way back to Black Eagle City. I needed to put some distance between myself and that place to clear my head.