The Undying Immortal System

Chapter 485 – Life 120, Age 61, Martial Lord Peak

Once my inner world was sealed behind the veil of tribulation clouds, I leaned back against the cold stone wall of my cultivation chamber and let out a long, slow breath.

Sending our entire sect into my inner world had left our lands exposed. Would Rulers from the Nine Rivers Domain use this opening to seize them without a fight? When the tribulation ended, would our people emerge to find that the kingdoms they had spent the last four years fighting over had fallen into the hands of invading armies?

I couldn’t help but worry about this, but in truth, it simply didn’t matter. Everything of importance was now locked away in my inner world. Even if the worst happened and we needed to retreat back through time, the foundation of what we had built would be preserved.

I exhaled once more, then turned my attention inward, where the Sacred Beacon Fire burned in my soul with a steady, pale radiance.

This was one of the fire seeds that I had borrowed from the Church of Liberation. Activating the Tribulation of Light had required the use of every single Yellow- and Profound-Rank seed in my possession, as well as two and a half of the Earth-Rank seeds I had borrowed from the Church.

And this was just to break through to Rank 5. How many seeds would Rank 6 demand? Could I truly reach the Peak of Rank Nine and transform my Small World into a Lower World?

Four elements remained: water, metal, wind, and lightning. I needed to be exceedingly careful about the order in which I unlocked them. I couldn’t allow my inner world to stagnate simply because I didn’t have enough fire seeds to fuel its growth.

If I continued to follow the Nine Rivers’ Bagua Diagram, my next step would be to unlock either the Laws of Water or the Laws of Wind. The Saint of the Abyssal Depths likely possessed enough high-level water seeds to drown an empire, but I had not yet made contact with the Depths in this life. Meanwhile, I already had one Earth-Rank wind seed, and the nearby Li Clan should be able to provide several more.

The choice was obvious.

Of course, before focusing on wind, I first needed to finish the task in front of me.

My eyes shifted to the storage bag that held the five seeds I had gotten from the Church of Liberation. While each of these seeds contained Laws of Light, two of them also possessed Laws of Purification.

I had been hesitating over whether to use these dual-element seeds. If I accidentally unlocked a sixth set of Laws, my inner world would advance immediately, even though it hadn’t yet reached the limits of Rank 5. This would cripple its potential, permanently limiting it to one tenth of its maximum possible size.

After seeing how many seeds it took to reach Rank Five, I decided I didn’t need to be so calculating. These dual-element seeds were the only ones I had that contained Laws of Purification, and there was no way they could push my world into Rank Six on their own. I could take this opportunity to absorb them and find out what adding a few minor, supplemental Laws might accomplish.

Standing up, I left my chamber and stepped into the adjoining room, where we had placed the Dragon Vein that we had acquired from Golden Eagle City.

There, I seated myself on a cultivation mat and began drawing in every wisp of energy I could grasp—both qi and wu, without regard for element or purity. I fed it all to the spirit fire burning in my soul.

I wouldn’t be able to finish absorbing the Laws from all five seeds before the tribulation came to an end. I could only hope the Church would let me hold onto them until I was finished.

I had been prepared for the Tribulation of Light to take up to two months. In the end, it only lasted forty days.

As the black clouds receded, I turned my gaze to Chang’an. The city at the center of the plane looked untouched, its quartzite walls shimmering in the midday light. A few kilometers away, the Shi Clan’s compound had taken some damage, but it was all minor. There were no signs of injured soldiers, and the cultivators spread along the walls held their posts without agitation or fatigue.

Hei’lin, in contrast, looked like it had barely survived.

The outlying villages, which had never experienced the terror of a beast tide, had all been destroyed, their buildings shattered into splinters and rubble. Even the central city, despite being enclosed by thick walls, suffered significant damage. The dark-infused stone looked as if it had been eaten away by acid, creating breaches that allowed the tribulation creatures to enter unimpeded.

Still, as bad as it looked, the casualties were minimal. JiuLi’s team had done their job, keeping the people safe even as the city around them was destroyed. The same could not be said of the beasts that inhabited the Plane of Dark.

Nearly every dark-aspected beast in my inner world had been purged. In their place prowled creatures that did not belong to the natural world.

Some looked like wolves made of pale glass, their bodies translucent enough that I could see rivers of luminous qi flowing beneath their skin. Others resembled armored lizards whose scales reflected the world like polished mirrors, turning every attack into a blinding flare. There were even thin, winged creatures that looked like humanoid silhouettes formed from condensed radiance.

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A familiar urge welled up within me. I wanted to collect these creatures and use them to populate my newest planes. Unfortunately, keeping them would mean losing control of my inner world. My only option was to eradicate them.

But first, I needed a clear picture of everything that had happened.

With a mental tug, I pulled Kan, JiuLi, YuLong, and Meng LuYao out of my inner world and into a small conference room. One look at them was enough to tell me who had suffered the most.

Kan stood straight, breathing evenly, as the golden threads of his bright red robes caught the room’s light. His long black hair was tied in a tight queue, not a single strand out of place. He almost looked as if he had come straight from a grand banquet.

Meng LuYao didn’t look much worse, but her eyes had the weariness of someone who had been fighting for forty days without rest.

YuLong smelled faintly of wet earth and crushed leaves. His torn robes were stained dark with dried mud, and a thin crust of pollen clung to his collar as if the forest had tried to mark him. Though, he looked more offended than exhausted.

JiuLi, meanwhile, looked like she had been run ragged. One sleeve was stained with dried blood, and her hair hung loose around her shoulders. Standing there, she carried the subtle tension of someone who expected the next attack to arrive at any moment.

Of all of them, Kan was the only one smiling.

“How did it go?” I asked, looking at him first.

“No problem,” he said easily. “But everyone in Chang’an knows about the changes in the Su Clan now. They were already suspicious—what with us recruiting every Disciple the day they turned sixteen—but after what we showed while fighting those creatures, we won’t be able to hide it anymore.”

He turned his head slightly toward JiuLi. “The Shi Clan is still hidden, though. With all of you deployed to the other planes, nobody noticed anything amiss. If anything, they just assumed that the Shi Clan was weaker than expected.”

JiuLi nodded in acknowledgment, then let out a tired breath.

“Hei’lin held, but barely. The first month was manageable, but a couple of weeks ago, something changed. The creatures began shimmering with renewed ferocity. Originally, Hei’lin’s dark cultivators were fighting them on roughly equal footing. After this change, the creatures were able to drink in dark qi like it was the sweetest tonic. Then, when they reached the city’s walls, the stone dissolved with a single touch. If the tribulation hadn’t ended when it did, we would have suffered a significant number of casualties.”

As I listened to JiuLi’s report, my body tensed involuntarily. Two weeks ago, I had started infusing my world with Laws of Purification. Had the tribulation creatures somehow absorbed these Laws? I couldn’t be certain, but I needed to be more careful in the future.

After JiuLi finished, Meng LuYao gave a brief report on the Plane of Woody Earth. The fighting there had been intense, like everywhere else, but the Bao and Ye Clans were masters of the wood element. In their native forests, the light creatures never stood much of a chance.

When I finally turned to YuLong, he sighed like a man who had been personally wronged. “Those deer are insane. I’m not joking. They were happy about the invasion. Every time one of those creatures showed up, it lit the place like a little sun, and the herd swarmed it without any regard for level or danger. Rank One beasts went straight at Grandmaster-level enemies with reckless disregard for their own lives. My squad could barely keep up.”

I stared at him for a moment. “Of course they were.”

Then, I straightened and met each of their eyes. “We survived the tribulation, but we still have work to do. While you were gone, I kept an eye on our cities through my avatars. There were a few disturbances, but no one attempted to lay claim to the territory itself. Let’s get everyone back before they start having second thoughts.”

In the weeks that followed, Kan and JiuLi recalled patrols, reinforced city garrisons, and re-established the routines that kept the mortals calm. They made public appearances in the right places, spoke in the right tones, and let the people see just enough strength to discourage predators without inciting panic. At the same time, they quietly dispatched squads into the beast planes to clear out the remaining tribulation creatures.

Mei and Yan had changed them. Not by making them stronger, but by teaching them how to wield their strength as efficiently as possible.

A few weeks later, when everything had returned to a smooth, steady rhythm, I summoned Kan and JiuLi to my private rooms in Black Eagle City.

Sitting across from them, I stared in silence for several moments, allowing my mind to drift through memories. First, of the recent past. Then, the distant past.

Just as the two youths were beginning to grow uncomfortable, I spoke.

“Suliang Kan. Shi JiuLi. The two of you have grown into exceptional leaders, establishing our sect in this world while guarding our people back home. Now that you’ve come into your own, now that you know who you are, I feel it’s finally time for you to learn who you were.”

I focused on my inner world, pulled out a pair of memory orbs, and placed them on the table between us. “The two of you are reincarnated souls. These orbs contain the memories of your previous lives—lives that ended several thousand years ago.”

Leaning forward, I gave them a gentle smile. “Just remember: whoever you were then is not who you are now. I only hope that these memories will help you grow to your full potential. Not by replacing who you are, but by giving you context, understanding, and perspective. Tools you cannot acquire in a single lifetime.”

For a moment, silence settled over the room, and JiuLi lifted her gaze to mine. “If we refuse?”

“Then you refuse,” I said. “And nothing changes.”

Kan stared at the orbs as if trying to decide whether they were a gift or a trap. Then he glanced at JiuLi, and something passed between them.

JiuLi reached forward first. She picked up her orb, rotated it slowly in her hand, and nodded.

Kan followed a heartbeat later.

Then, they pressed their qi into the jade orbs and absorbed the memories of their past. After the process was complete, they remained silent for long moments, processing everything they had learned.

The first to move was JiuLi, who looked at me with a complicated expression, then clasped her fists and gave me a deep bow. “Thank you, Ancestor.”

Kan remained seated, staring at nothing in particular. Then, slowly, a wry grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Those memories are more than a little out of date,” I said. “But I hope they will be of use to you.”

As the two stood to leave, Kan looked at JiuLi and laughed. “Keeping these things from us for so long. I told you he was a bastard.”