Chapter 339 – Life 77, Age 277, Martial Sovereign Peak

Once the vast majority of people were out of my inner world and back to where they had come from, I was finally ready to figure out what the hell had just happened. While there were plenty of people that I could have asked, I fell back into my old pattern of centuries and called on ShouLi.

After sending her a quick signal, I pulled her out of the world and into my sitting room atop the Summit.

“ShouLi, what happened in there?”

She raised a hand to rub her forehead. “Well… Chang’an was… attacked? Invaded? All of the plants just started growing like crazy and attacking people. Trees sprang out of the ground and thrashed people with their branches. Vines appeared out of nowhere and lashed people. Flowers blossomed in hidden alcoves and filled the air with toxic spores. Destroying them was easy enough, but they produced seeds, and those seeds quickly grew into new enemies. It was… a mess.”

How… Wasn’t my world supposed to be protected from outside interference? When I first bought the space, I paid for it to be outside the control of the Heavenly and Earthly Daos. Was this ‘invasion’ the work of an even more powerful entity? Why?

ShouLi let out a weary sigh. “It wasn’t all bad. Having so many plants around ensured that no one went hungry. Also, while the plants did attack us, even Disciples were able to take care of the majority of them. The most powerful was only at the level of a Martial Master.”

“I… see. Thank you. Sorry about… everything.”

She smiled and waved this away. “No need. It was… fun.”

---------------------------------------------------

After ShouLi left, I sat down to figure out what to do from here. However, before making any decisions, I first need information.

“System, a trillion credits. Tell me what you can about the invasion.”

Purchase confirmed. 1,229,314,660,747 credits remaining

Host’s Rank 1 Small World ascended to Rank 2. Due to the manner in which this Rank was achieved, to verify it, the Small World was subjected to a Tribulation of Wood. As more than 10% of the world’s sapient population survived, the advancement of Host’s Small World was verified.

As a boon from surviving, all inhabitants received a boost to their wood affinity.

Note: There are still entities from the tribulation in your Small World. Their continued existence will cause the world’s Laws to mutate, eventually causing you to lose control over the areas inhabited by these creatures.

Note: The enhancement that a person receives to their wood affinity is static. Changing the number of people in the world will not affect the boost that you or anyone else receives.

Credits expended. Transaction complete.

That… was interesting. To allow my world to advance successfully, all I needed to do was ensure that 10% of its population could survive the associated tribulation. Did this mean that, instead of pulling in as many people as possible, I should expel everyone except the Emperors?

However, that last note…

A quick check proved that anyone who had been in the world when it had advanced now had at least a high nine-star wood affinity. This meant that every single person had absorbed somewhere between 85 and 160 credits worth of wood essence. There had been around 4 million people in my world when it had ascended, so my clan had been gifted around 400 million credits worth of free essence. And if this was considered ‘cultivated’ essence, then the total could be as much as 10 times that amount.

With future ascensions… The amount of essence given to each person should increase with each advancement, right? I could ensure my world’s successful advancement by only leaving a handful of Emperors inside, but that would make this boon somewhat meaningless. What if, instead, I increased the population to 40 million, 400 million, or even 4 billion… How much free essence would we be able to generate?

I would need to think about this and talk it over with my clan. Generating free essence would be nice, but the most important thing was to ensure that the advancement was successful.

In any event, this tribulation had provided us with an additional boon that hadn’t been listed by the System. The unexpected 10-day trial of our bunkers had given us new insights into how to modify them and make them suitable for long-term habitation. While they would never be places where people would want to live permanently, if we could get them to a point where they could house people for a couple of years, it would make things much smoother during my next reset.

After noting this down, my thoughts turned toward plans for the further development of my world. If it was going to be subjected to this kind of tribulation with each advancement, then I needed to be careful with the order in which I did things.

With the wood element sitting at the center of the Bagua, I could, essentially, make my world’s third element anything I wanted. I had originally planned for it to be fire, since fire sat next to earth, but did I want to subject my world to a Tribulation of Fire?

Yes. Absolutely. If I did fire next, then the tribulation would only be Rank 3. While I didn’t know how much the difficulty of these tribulations would increase, facing a Rank 3 fire tribulation sounded far safer than facing a Rank 9 fire tribulation. Best to get it over with as early as possible.

Mentally confirming this plan that I had already decided upon, I slotted the Expanding Realms Fire into my soul and started growing a fourth plane at the end of the tube that stretched to the south of Chang’an. With the world having advanced to Rank 2, I could grow it to a total of 100 cubic kilometers, so I would eventually need to spend some time expanding Chang’an and my two existing planes.

However, there was no need to rush. Chang’an was already big enough to meet my current needs, so other plans took precedence.

Refocusing, I looked at the Plane of Wood.

My clan had already taken care of the ‘tribulation creatures’ in Chang’an, and they, apparently, hadn’t been able to establish a foothold on the Plane of Earth. The Plane of Wood, though, had been overrun with the things. While I was somewhat interested in keeping a few specimens around for research, I had no desire to lose control of even the smallest part of my world, so they had to go.

Unfortunately, when I tried to pull them into the outside world, they didn’t budge. So, instead, I had to send a team of earth and wood cultivators to go in and destroy them for me.

Like with the tribulation itself, this wasn’t exactly dangerous. There were a lot of plants to kill, and some were rather large, but none were stronger than a Martial Master. Still, this served as a warning for what future ascensions might hold.

---------------------------------------------------

77 years later, the size of my fourth plane reached roughly the same volume as the other three, so I began filling it with all manner of rocks, soils, trees, and shrubberies. Then, I tossed in what few dual-element wood-earth fire seeds I had in my collection. Eventually, this would become the Plane of Woody Earth. Once I could get extra copies of the single-element wood and earth seeds, I would chuck them in there as well, but that would have to wait for a future life.

Once this was all done, I shifted the Expanding Realms Fire and targeted it at Chang’an.

At this point, my inner world contained 4 planes: Chang’an, Earth, Wood, and Woody Earth. By the time it reached the Peak of Rank 2, I intended for it to have 3 more: Fire, Earthfire, and Woodfire. These seven planes could have a total size of 100 cubic kilometers, which meant 14 for each. At the moment, Chang’an was only at 3.6, so it had some growing to do.

Simultaneously, several teams of cultivators got to work on rebuilding our bunker and farm infrastructure.

Beneath the inner ring of Chang’an, there had previously only been three rings of underground farms. In a bid to provide enough food for potentially millions of people, the area was reworked into a total of 10 farms each 5 meters in height, giving us roughly 20 square kilometers of farmland. Normally, this might still only be enough to feed a few thousand people, but with a combination of herbalists, growing formations, and spirit fires producing vital energy, it was enough to feed several million.

As for the bunkers, they were reworked entirely. The 30 basic rings were replaced with 100 taller, more elaborate rings that stretched from the floor of the space to its ceiling. Each 4.5 square kilometer ring was designed to hold 100,000 people in relative comfort.

Each person was to be given a small 20-square-meter room where they could seclude themselves in relative privacy. There would be gardens to serve as supplementary food sources, communal bathrooms where spirit fires disposed of any waste, wells where spirit fires produced water, and multiple formations to deal with air quality. Most importantly, there would be illusion formations to provide people with at least the fantasy that they had access to the outside world.

Once all of this was in place, people might enjoy living in these bunkers, but they should be able to survive in them for at least a couple of years, and that would be long enough.

After laying everything out and making the proper arrangements, I returned to my work with formations, but… only one year later…

---------------------------------------------------

On one of the upper floors of Chang’an’s central tower, a withered old man was lying in bed while a beautiful young woman was sitting in a chair next to him, holding his hand. A group of a dozen men and women of all ages surrounded them.

“System, I need to purchase a new technique. Give me the soul avatar skill that will let me create a visible body.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 trillion credits. 229,314,660,747 credits remaining

Reading through the technique, I quickly grasped what I needed to do to make my avatar visible. And after a few minutes of practice, I was able to create a decent facsimile of my body. Then, refocusing on the old man, I manipulated my soul and created an avatar next to his bedside.

I gave him my best grandfatherly smile. “Hello, Liang. How are you holding up?”

He slowly turned his head to face me and let out a soft snort filled with a range of complex emotions. “I’ve always said you were a bastard. Look at you now, interrupting my final moments with my family.”

While Liang’s words were harsh, they weren’t filled with anger or bitterness, just nostalgia. He wasn’t complaining because he was annoyed. He was complaining because he liked to complain.

“Hao, get over here and greet the Ancestor!” Liang snapped at a young man off to the side of the assembly who promptly rushed forward and gave a salute. “Hao, this bastard is Ancestor Fang. Treat him with whatever respect he deserves. Once you’re the Head of the Council, do your best to assist him. He’s more than a little absentminded, but he tries… sometimes.”

Hao bowed once to Liang. “Yes, Grandfather.” Then, he saluted and bowed to me. “Greetings, Ancestor.”

I gave him a nod of my head in return.

Liang grunted and waved this exchange away. “I don’t know how little Yang lost the seat to GuiMing’s brat, but don’t you worry. I’m confident that Hao will do us proud.”

Liang’s eyes drifted to the ceiling as ShouLi patted his arm in comfort.

With an exertion of will, I made two memory orbs appear, one in each of Liang’s hands.

“Liang, this might…” I let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know what the future holds. Not for me, and not for you. So… Two orbs. In one, you can store a legacy. You can record any skills or memories that you wish to be preserved and passed down to future generations. If you have any requirements for who should receive this legacy, let me know. As for the second orb… I want to be prepared, just in case. Store everything. Everything you know and believe. All your memories. This way, if we see each other again, I can return them to you.”

For a moment, it looked like Liang might toss the orbs away, but after a glance at ShouLi, he puffed out a breath of stale air, leaned back in his bed, and did as I requested.

After retrieving these orbs, I only stuck around for a few more minutes. I could feel that I was out of place. I was intruding on a private moment.

---------------------------------------------------

On the north side of Chang’an, a mausoleum had been built to honor the members of my clan’s first generation. All of those who had only been able to ascend to Lord or King had already passed. Now, with Liang, the first Emperor had fallen. Due to the injuries he had sustained in the fight against Li NeiTang, this had come a bit earlier than it should have, but even without those injuries, it had been inevitable.

After the funeral service, once everyone had departed, I placed Liang’s Legacy Orb on his tombstone and constructed a formation around it. Liang’s request had been simple: anyone with sufficient determination should be able to access his legacy. I did my best to make a formation to honor this.

The next day, I met with ShouLi. She had started to show signs of aging herself in recent years, but she still looked to be no older than 35 or 40.

“ShouLi, I want… I want to start honoring certain families, certain lineages. You and Liang… I want the two of you to be the forebearers of the clan’s first named branch. Instead of simply ‘Su,’ your descendants should bear the name Sushou, Suli, or Suliang.”

ShouLi bowed a weary head. “Suliang. He would hate it. He would want it to be named after me. But… Suliang.”

---------------------------------------------------

Only a few years later, the first people who had joined my clan turned 600 years old. I had held out hope that maybe body cultivation or vital energy might change things, but no.

First, Mo passed away. Then, on the same day, GuiMing and GuiAi died. Then… ShouLi. One year later, NiangBa’s time came to an end as well. I had each person record both their memories and their legacy, but that was all I could do. The Laws that demanded their deaths were beyond my control.

Less than a year after NiangBa’s passing, I stood beside yet another deathbed. This time, it was RuLan’s.

With Mo having already departed, he wasn’t here to see her on her way. Instead, the elderly man at RuLan’s bedside was their first son, QiQiang. Looking at him, it was clear that his time would soon be coming to an end as well. Knowing this, I couldn’t stop the tears that rolled down my cheeks.

Unlike the others, RuLan had placed an empty chair on the left side of her bed, opposite her son. When she saw me, she patted it. “Please, Senior Brother, sit with me.”

Silently, I did as requested.

RuLan tried to place a hand on my shoulder, but it slipped through my incorporeal form, so she could only pull it back with a sigh. “Senior Brother… Ancestor… Thank you. The others might not have been able to say it, but we all know. We all know what would have happened if you hadn’t saved us back then. We all recognize how much you changed things. So, thank you.”

I just lowered my head, not knowing how to respond.

RuLan’s gaze drifted to the ceiling. “I just wonder… Did we make a mistake? Did we do something wrong?”

“What…”

“I never got to see Master again. I spent too much time in the Wastes. By the time we left, he was…” A tear trickled from RuLan’s eye. “Do you remember the last words that Master said to me? These past few years, they kept running through my mind. ‘Don’t cry, girl. We’ll see each other again. Though, at that time, I might be the one saying goodbye to you. Spend these years well. Live them without regret.’ I’ve done my best to follow his instructions, but we never did see each other again.”

These words lit a spark of hope within me, but I did my best not to show it. While Emperor Li’s blessing did not let him see the future, I had to believe that he wouldn’t have said these words if they didn’t have a deeper meaning. A future meeting between RuLan and Li had to be possible.

However, even if such a possibility existed, it was something for the distant future. It did not change the present.

RuLan looked to QiQiang, who handed her Emperor Li’s token. She tried to pass it to me, but it just slipped through my incorporeal hands. Then, exhausted, she lay back and fell asleep.

Only a few days after my visit, RuLan left to follow Mo and the others on their final journey.

After her death, our clan welcomed the birth of three new branch families. Sugui, Suba, and Sulan. In the years to come, more than anything else, this would remind me of those who had helped me lay the foundation for our clan’s future prosperity.

---------------------------------------------------

Over the next several decades, I became a bit more closed off. The only person that I spent much time around was Shen.

The two of us had learned a lot over the years and had perfected both the large-scale Rank 7 Multi-Anti-Soul Lamp Formation and the large-scale Anti-Portal Formation. We had even started investigating a few other formation designs. However, before we were able to complete any of them, we ran out of time.

Not long after I turned 437 years old, the portal to the Central Continent opened, and a young man in silver robes stepped out of it. As soon as I was informed of this, I rushed to meet him.

“Greetings, Emissary Fang. I am Envoy Ling. You have been permitted to witness the Ascension of the Nine Rivers Saint. If you are willing to swear the proper Oath, then you may follow me to the Central Continent to do so.”

This ‘Envoy Ling’ spoke with a pleasant smile on his face, but for some reason, I didn’t quite trust it. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t get a very good read on him.

“Thank you, Envoy Ling. May I have some time to consider this?”

The Envoy’s lip twitched. In amusement? In disdain? I wasn’t sure. “No. I am unable to remain here any longer than necessary. However, a word of advice. After the current Saint departs, the new Saint may not appreciate those who are not present during his ascension.”

I cupped my fists and bowed. “I understand. However, I am truly unable to leave at this moment. Please, send the Saint, both Saints, my regards.”

A flash of something appeared in the Envoy’s eyes. “Very well.”

Then, he turned and departed.

I immediately sent a signal to everyone in my clan’s leadership. We need to get gone. Thankfully, in recent years, the radius of Chang’an had expanded from 1.5 kilometers to over 2 kilometers. With stacked, layered bunkers, we had plenty of room to temporarily house everyone who wanted to go with us.

Rushing around the continent, I created a series of portals that connected the various bunkers within Chang’an to the different places people had settled down. Aside from gathering up millions of people from the Su Clan, I also grabbed a large number of people from the families of my Revered Elders and several hundred thousand people from the Ning, Zhuge, Li, Jiu, and Du Clans.

While Du XiongMing had joined the Ning Clan in this life, he had always wanted to ascend to Sovereign with his own, so I would give him that opportunity. As for the Jiu Clan, while I didn’t have any desire to keep it around, it was a necessary precondition for Grand Elder Zheng BoQin’s support. And if we were going to need a Jiu Clan in future loops, it might as well be the one we seeded. This would at least give me a bit of control over who got its Sovereign-level energy.

I had only given the clans three days to get this all done, but that had been plenty. We had known that this day was coming, and the people who wanted to leave had been waiting for the signal for months.

After the last portal to my inner world closed, I couldn’t help but jump back to the Summit and take a look at the arch that led to the Central Continent. Part of me wanted to see what was on the other side.

However, doing so would have been far too dangerous. Any number of instant death traps might have been waiting for me, and it was possible that some of them might even target my soul.

So, after one last look, I let out a sigh of regret and swallowed a specially made wood-based poison pill that had no difficult in dealing with my earth-based body cultivation.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Sovereign Peak – 100 trillion credits awarded.

You died at Peak Rank 6 of Body Cultivation – 1 trillion credits awarded.

Total Credits: 101,229,314,660,747

-----------------------------------------------------

Complete Status Page

Rank 2 Small World – 16.6/100 km3 (Earth, Wood)

Affinities

Peak Four-Star – Earth, Metal, Lightning

Peak Five-Star – Wood, Fire, Water, Wind, Light, Dark

Low Four-Star – Karmic Energy

Low Five-Star – Space

Resistances

Mental Effects (Cultivation Techniques) – 25,000,000 credits

Mental Library

Capacity – Rank 6

Journal (with Mental Input) – Rank 6

Perfect Transcription – Rank 6

Touch Reading – Rank 6

Scribe – Rank 3

Comprehension Boosts

Cultivation:

Cultivation Techniques – 100 billion credits

Body Cultivation – 100 billion credits

Soul Techniques – 100 billion credits

Energy Control – 100 billion credits

Teaching – 100 million credits

Professions:

Alchemy – 100 billion credits

Formations – 5 trillion credits

Herbalism – 10 billion credits

Refining – 100 billion credits

Martial – 1 billion credits

Social:

Reading Emotions (True) – 25,000,000 credits

Skills

Mastery of Cold Mountain Fire, Expanding Realms Fire

Memory Implantation — Rank 1

Storage Bag Absorption — Profound

Talisman Artistry – Rank 4 (Continent-Wide Expert)

Soul Formation Concealment – Rank 6

Enhanced Soul Growth – 20,000 credits

Pill, Formation, Herb, Talisman, Demon Beast, Refined Item, Illusion, and Gu Appraisal – Rank 3 (Comprehensive, Detailed)

Technique Appraisal – Rank 5 (Earth)

Fire Seed Appraisal – Profound

Language (Western Han)