Chapter 329 – Life 77, Age 73, Martial Emperor Peak

With a monumental battle against the Sovereigns on the horizon, I needed to improve my cultivation base as much as possible. But to do that, I first needed to acquire a significant quantity of karmic energy.

After traveling back through time, the population of the Su Clan hadn’t even been enough to form a proper kingdom. However, the leadership council had already experienced the process of building several complete empires from scratch. So, they knew what needed to be done, and with the help of my Revered Elders, it only took them a couple of decades to lay down new foundations for all of our sects and guilds.

This was enough for the world to recognize the Wastes as an ‘official’ empire.

Of course, the amount of karmic energy that this fledgling empire generated couldn’t compare to what we were harvesting at the peak of my last life, but that was fine. All of that extra energy had come from people outside of our clan. What we needed was ‘Su Clan’ energy, and this new empire was creating about as much of it as possible.

That said, while this new Empire of the Wastes had indeed been creating energy, almost none of it had been put to use. Instead, TongBin stored it away in the dantians of an ever-growing number of subordinates.

Now that the Wastes were open to Emperors, and now that Sovereigns could enter Dragon Gate, it was time to decide how we wanted to use this stockpile. For this conversation, though, I didn’t call a full meeting of the council. Difficult decisions would need to be made, and I wanted to talk things out with ShouLi before involving anyone else.

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Upon entering the conference room, ShouLi gave a quick martial salute, activated the anti-portal formation, and sat down across from me.

“ShouLi…” I closed my eyes as my mind cycled through the process of rewording what I wanted to tell her. Before she had entered, I knew what I wanted to say, but upon seeing her, I couldn’t help but feel it was insufficient. “We need to discuss certain… complications that are involved in the process of people ascending to Martial Sovereign. You… Everyone… will need to decide if you are willing to accept the consequences that come from attempting such a breakthrough.”

She just nodded in reply, and I noticed a hint of fatalism in the motion. This made me think that she had already figured out a few things on her own, and I regretted not having this conversation sooner.

“To ascend to Sovereign, you can either use Emperor-level energy or Sovereign-level energy. However, attempting to make the breakthrough with Emperor-level energy is… difficult. If your core is not strong enough, your breakthrough will fail, your energy body will be destroyed, and, at best, you will end up crippled for the rest of your life.”

ShouLi bowed her head. “I see.”

“If you want to use Sovereign-level energy, though…” I paused and backed up. “My core is more than strong enough. I will not need any Sovereign-level energy to complete my initial breakthrough, and I see no reason to use it during my Sovereign-realm ascensions. According to Ning ZeKun, ascending with nothing but Emperor-level energy will prevent me from being able to break through to Martial Spirit, but that probably wasn’t going to happen anyway since we can’t do so on this continent. Therefore, I am willing to reserve all of the clan’s Sovereign-level energy for those who need it more than I do. However…”

I took a deep breath. “You and the others are already over 300 years old, and I don’t know how long it will take for us to gather the energy necessary for all of you to break through. Also… If you do break through to Sovereign, you will no longer be able to enter my inner world, my soul space… You will no longer be able to travel back in time with us. This life will be your last. If something goes wrong… If we have to revert… You won’t be able to join us.”

Looking at ShouLi, I could see she wanted to say something, but I pressed forward.

“Even if nothing goes wrong, even if everything works out perfectly, something is going to happen in about 360 years. While Ning ZeKun can’t tell us exactly what, the fact that it involves the Saint—and the fact that he can predict this event several hundred years before it happens—tells us quite a bit. In any case, we will almost certainly have to do a reset before whatever is going to happen happens. So… You… All of you…”

A faint hint of tears welled up in the corner of my eyes. “You have to make a choice. If everything goes as well as we could possibly hope… Either you ascend to Sovereign and are left behind when we retreat through time, or… you… pass away from old age before that happens.”

Part of me… Part of me wanted to offer the third option. We could go back to the start of the loop, and I could make them permanent time travelers like I had done with LuLu. This might cost me a substantial number of credits, but dying as a Sovereign should more than cover it.

Part of me wanted to offer this option, but I didn’t. I couldn’t say exactly why. It just felt… wrong. This feeling might have originated from my soul cultivation, or it might have originated from my karmic affinity. Either way, I decided to listen to it.

ShouLi dropped her head, understanding the choice I had given her.

“I’ll… I’ll talk it through with the others. I don’t like the idea of cutting my future short… I want to live. I want to advance. But…” She shook her head sadly. “I’ll talk it through with the others.”

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With ShouLi’s departure, the members of my inner council were left with the question of if or when they would choose to ascend to Martial Sovereign. As they met to discuss and decide upon their answers, I turned my attention inward, toward my own ascension.

As I had told ShouLi, I had no intention of using Sovereign-level energy for this breakthrough. I simply didn’t see a need for it.

Instead, I met with TongBin and gathered up a significant percentage of the Emperor-level energy that he had stashed away over the years. And by shoving nearly all of this energy into my core, I created an explosion that completely destroyed my energy body.

Just like last time, I had advanced to Sovereign at the expense of my cultivation base. However, there were two significant differences between this breakthrough and the previous one.

Last time, infusing karmic energy into my core had caused it to expand and stretch. Eventually, the thin threads of its lacy walls snapped one at a time until, finally, it could no longer hold together, and everything exploded.

This time, my core was much more… rigid. It didn’t expand even the slightest bit as I poured energy into it. Then, once a critical threshold was reached, the whole thing exploded all at once.

This change could have been the result of the modifications that I had made during my ascension to Emperor, but this explanation didn’t feel correct. Instead, I was almost certain that this change was the result of using the messy soup of karmic energy provided by the Nine Rivers Sect rather than a more homogeneous mix of pure ‘Su Clan’ energy.

Both processes had resulted in my ascension to Sovereign, so the differences between them might not have been too important, but they got me wondering…

The members of my clan didn’t have nearly the level of control over karmic energy that I had. As a result, their karmic cores were far inferior to my own. Creating a more elastic core might be a viable workaround that could allow them to inject more energy into their cores and increase their odds of successfully ascending to Sovereign.

Alternatively, this elasticity in a core might be detrimental. Maybe one of the reasons that the Nine Rivers Sect doled out a messy blend of karmic energy was because they had found that such a mix was actually beneficial. Could having a more rigid core improve a person’s chance of breaking through to Sovereign?

Both possibilities seemed equally likely. If we wanted to find the truth of the matter, we would need to perform several rounds of experiments.

Of course, I could just buy this knowledge from the System, but I saw no reason to waste my credits in such a way. No matter which path was best for ordinary people, I planned to avoid cultivating with the sect’s energy whenever possible. While a more rigid core might allow a person to break through more easily, the consequences were… unsightly.

Normally, I perceived my energy body as a ghostly white overlay that was superimposed atop my physical body. When I advanced to Sovereign, my energy body was infused with karma, and its white glow turned golden.

When this had happened in my previous life, the energy body that was created looked like it had been formed from pure, 24-karat gold. That energy body might have been a bit fuzzy around the edges, but it gave off impressions of both solidity and purity.

This time, however, the energy body that formed upon my ascension to Sovereign was covered in thin, white cracks. There were no gaping holes, but I was certain that if I tried to infuse this body with any non-Su Clan energy, the result would be less than pleasant.

Still, while I had become aware of potential drawbacks to the way I had cultivated in this life, my ascension was successful, and I could move forward with confidence. So, over the next couple of weeks, I carefully reopened my acupoints, reformed my meridians, and rebuilt my dantian.

As I did so, I noticed several changes that I hadn’t paid much attention to in the past.

The ‘muscles’ of my new energy body could hold far more qi than I was used to. Qi flowed through my meridians more quickly and smoothly than normal. And my dantian showed no signs of strain even when filled to the brim with energy.

This should have not only given me more energy to work with, but it also should have made my qi far more potent than before my ascension. However, as my qi passed through the tiny, white cracks in my energy body, it shuddered. While this ‘shudder’ didn’t cause any real problems, it negated most of the benefits that came from my new form.

This cemented my belief that using the karmic energy provided by the sect was a bad idea. However, while these minor hiccups were unfortunate, they weren’t enough to cause us to change our plans.

After my advancement to Sovereign, TongBin’s supply of Su Clan energy was nearly depleted, so instead of pushing any further, I changed directions and began cultivating my body.

To try and prevent the Sovereigns from learning any more than necessary, I had avoided body cultivation while in the Nine Rivers Sect, so I was starting from scratch. And since I had only gone through the process of body cultivation once before, it still took me a lot of time and effort to do it correctly.

After 8 full months of work, I only advanced to the Peak of Rank 3. I had hoped to make it a little further, but our time was running out.

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Shortly before the operation to attack the Sovereigns was set to commence, ShouLi paid me a visit.

After giving a martial salute, she got right to the point. “Ancestor… After talking things over with the others, we have… we have decided to hold off on making a decision. As you said, if we want to advance to Sovereign, we will need to use Sovereign-level energy. Since we don’t know how long it will take to gather the necessary energy… We will wait to see what is even possible before making any decisions.”

I gave her a sad smile. “I understand.”