Chapter 312 – Life 76, Age 112, Martial Emperor Peak

By the time I was able to reach Peak Emperor, my body was only eight years away from entering stagnation. I wanted to rush to break through to Sovereign before that happened, but I knew that doing so would put everyone in my clan at risk.

More to the point, even if I protected everyone by storing them in my inner world, attempting to ascend too early could lead to the destruction of everything that we had built over this past century. With everything we had learned, rebuilding would be significantly easier, but I wasn’t sure how the people in my clan would handle that. I doubted anyone would be thrilled to find out that the life they had spent 100 years building had been destroyed because the ‘ancestor’ decided to rush his cultivation.

After a bit of soul-searching, I calmed down. Entering stagnation wouldn’t be so bad. I would still be able to progress. Even if I entered the early stages of calcification, I could still try to ascend. It might be more difficult, but it should still be possible.

Besides, what had Emperor Li told me? “As for the final breakthrough to Sovereign, make sure that you are fully prepared.” Without even reaching Rank 6 of body cultivation, how could I dare to consider myself “fully prepared?”

I needed to wait. There was still so much more I needed to do.

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Ever since we broke the third ring of formation beneath Dragon Gate, ShouLi had been the unannounced Emperor of the Wastes. The head of the Dragon Gate Kingdom, the Sect Masters, the city lords, and the upper-level members of our clan all knew of her position, but it was not common knowledge among the wider populace.

We had done this in order to achieve two different, but related, goals. With any luck, not announcing ShouLi’s position might lead outsiders to think that we were still limited to King-level karma. But, even if they did figure out that we were officially an empire, by leaving ShouLi in charge, they might think that she was our only Emperor.

In any case, because ShouLi was our official Emperor, she was the one who received all of our Emperor-level karma, so I had to make yearly trips to distribute it to the people who had purchased it. During the first such trip after I advanced to Rank 3 of body cultivation, we sat down to talk about our plans for the future.

“ShouLi, for the next several years, I need to reserve about a tenth of the karma you are receiving for my own use. All of it will be from the pool of Su Clan karma.”

This tenth was the karmic energy being generated by people connected to me through both body and soul. From what Emperor Li had told me at the Summit of the Nine Rivers Sect, all I needed to do to advance to Sovereign was infuse my core with copious amounts of this energy. Even though I had no plans to rush my breakthrough, since this energy was rather scarce, I figured that it would be best to go ahead and start accumulating it.

ShouLi bowed her head. “Yes, Ancestor. I will make the arrangements.”

I walked over to where ShouLi had a map of the Wastes laid out across a large table.

“How have things been going with the clan? Is everything still running smoothly?”

ShouLi’s movements hitched slightly as she moved over to stand next to me.

“For the most part…”

I raised an eyebrow at that but allowed her to continue without interruption.

“Ancestor, there are a few things we have been considering, and it would be good if we could get your input on them.” She reached into her storage bag, pulled out a map of the entire continent, and laid it atop the map of the Wastes. “In the north, Shi YuHua has done an excellent job of growing the Guild of Refiners. For karmic purposes, it already registers as an official kingdom. However, still cannot compare to the older guilds.”

She made a wide, sweeping gesture to the set of kingdoms and empires marked with a red pill furnace. “Chong’s Guild of Alchemists is more than large enough to become an independent empire. The guilds for the formation specialists, beast tamers, herbalists, and talisman artists are a bit smaller, but they are nearly at the same point. The only guild that hasn’t seen its share of success is the Guild of Illusionists, and that’s because we don’t have the right Essence Gathering Formations. Though, from reports, the Zhuge Clan’s suppression is also a contributing factor.”

I nodded, impressed. It had been a while since I had checked in on the guilds, and I hadn’t expected their progress to be so swift.

Realizing the cause of this rapid expansion, I smile. “This is because the Sovereigns are trying to suppress us here in the Wastes, isn’t it?”

ShouLi nodded. “Yes. They are encouraging Lords to send their children to the guilds so that they won’t send them to the sects.”

“Will this be a problem?”

ShouLi hesitated but shook her head. “Not… exactly. The population base of the sects is solid at this point. Even with no outside recruits, they won’t have any problem maintaining their status as kingdoms.”

I looked at her and furrowed my brow. “What’s wrong?”

She sighed and waved a hand at the map again. “Aside from the Guild of Illusionists, all of the guilds are either already large enough to be empires or soon will be. Keeping them within the umbrella of the Empire of the Wastes is just limiting their potential for karmic energy generation.”

I nodded. “This is what we expected, right? Branch them off. That way, we will have multiple distinct empires.”

“Yes… but… If we do that, we run into a problem. The Empire of the Wastes isn’t big enough. We only have 8 kingdoms here. If we include the Guild of Illusionists, that’s nine. We need 10 to qualify as an official empire and generate Emperor-level karma. Without the other guilds, we’ll be one kingdom short.”

ShouLi was acting rather nervous, but I wasn’t sure why. Even though the Wastes only contained 8 official kingdoms, our population was more than sufficient to spawn off a ninth. Arranging everything and drawing up official borders might be troublesome, but it shouldn’t be too difficult.

I looked her in the eye. “What do you want to say?”

She sighed and slumped her shoulders. Then, she put away the map of the continent and gestured to the map of the Wastes.

“Dragon Gate Kingdom is in the center. More than anything, it serves as our base. There are sects in the four cardinal directions and three of the ordinal directions. These sects serve as training centers for seven of the eight professions. Looking at the map, we can see that there is still one area relatively open, the southwest. The leadership council and I have been discussing whether or not we should construct a new sect there. If we do…”

I closed my eyes, understanding her meaning.

If we were going to spin most of the guilds off to form their own empires, we needed to start working on forming a new kingdom. While we could just throw up a few random cities and call it a day, that likely wasn’t the best option.

We already had sects for seven out of the eight professions. Wouldn’t it make more sense if our final kingdom were a sect for the final profession?

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I had a strong aversion to wind cultivators and gu keepers ever since I had first met them. This was partially a normal reaction to the fact that gu keepers were mostly shunned by society, but it was mostly due to me not wanting my soul to be infested with demonic insects.

That said, I could admit that every profession had its evil side. Beast tamers would slaughter cultivators and feed the bodies to their companions in the hope of raising them to Rank 4. Alchemists could make countless different pills that could poison both a person’s body and soul. And, while I had never actually seen it happen, I had read accounts of formation specialists who learned to use human remains to create especially powerful formations.

So, while my introduction to gu keeper hadn’t been the best, I could admit that they were not somehow inherently, uniquely more evil than any other professionals.

Still, even putting that aside… Was making a sect for gu keepers the right move? There were a few problems with the idea.

Most importantly, no one in the clan knew anything about gu keeping. I didn’t even have any books on the topic in my mental library. Outside of the Nine Rivers Sect, gu keeping was shunned, so finding any information on the topic was difficult. Within the Nine Rivers Sect, manuals on gu keeping were kept on the Wind Peak, and I had never even considered visiting that place. Even when compared to the other peaks, the Wind Peak felt supremely dangerous. How was I supposed to set up a sect without any information?

Still… I did have ways to acquire the information we needed, but even if I did, we didn’t have any gu eggs. Well, I did still have one tucked away in my inner world, but I couldn’t exactly start a sect with only a single soul gu egg.

Also, there was the problem of affinities. I didn’t have a diagram for a Wind Essence Gathering Formation, so I couldn’t raise people’s wind affinities, and since wind was a secondary element, people’s wind affinities were naturally lower than affinities for the primary elements. This meant that only a minority of the people who joined this potential gu keeping sect would have a chance of even reaching Martial Grandmaster.

Still…

As I walked aimlessly through the streets of Dragon Gate City, I pulled out three jade slips.

“System, imbue one of these slips with all of the knowledge that would be expected from one of this continent’s top-level Gu Disciples. Imbue another with similar knowledge for a Gu Master, and imbue the third with the knowledge of a Gu Grandmaster.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 10,101,000,000 credits. 139,465,548,524 credits remaining.

I juggled the three small jade slips in my hand for a moment.

Should I absorb their knowledge? I didn’t like the idea of getting my crafting knowledge from the System. I wanted to learn it myself. So, if this was just a matter of learning the art of gu keeping, it wouldn’t even be a question. But this was also about the safety of my people. Was it right to release the information contained in these slips without knowing what they contained?

Making up my mind, I inserted my qi into the Rank 1 slip and absorbed the memories contained within.

I carefully sorted through everything and checked for any potential dangers.

Then, I sent a wave of qi into my soul and crushed the orb of energy that contained the jade slip's information. This caused me to completely forget everything that I had just learned about gu keeping, but I retained a certainty that my clan could deal with any difficulties that the knowledge in the Rank 1 slip might cause.

After this, I repeated my actions with the slips for Ranks 2 and 3.

As I considered what I had learned, my legs took me to one of the minor administration buildings that dealt with the disposition of apartments in the city’s western quadrant.

I breezed past a security guard who tried to block my path and made my way up to the second floor.

There, I found the desk where a young-looking woman was hard at work.

“Hello, Mei. Let’s talk.”

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After taking Mei to a tea house, I showed her the three jade slips and told her my intentions.

She stared at me, mouth agape. “You… You want me to start a sect for gu keepers?”

I nodded seriously. “Yes. The clan will provide you with all the support you need to get started. These slips contain a lot of what you need to know, but I don’t want you just handing them out to people. The information needs to be written down in books. I will also need to get supplementary technique manuals, and we will need to find a source of gu eggs.”

“An… Ancestor Su…” Mei was visibly struggling with my sudden request. “I don’t think…”

“Pei LiMei.” I looked at her and gave my best impression of Emperor Li’s granite expression. “I have investigated your background. Daughter of the Pei Clan, direct descendant of the Emperor of the Tranquil Springs. You were raised to be a Ruler. You know what it involves. Your blessing may have gotten you kicked out of your clan, but I am certain that you haven’t forgotten all of the lessons you learned as a child.”

She dropped her head.

“As a 113-year-old Lord, you have already entered stagnation. If you are willing to become the Sect Master, I will immediately raise you to King. If you do a good enough job, you will have a chance at ascending to Emperor one day. However, all you need to do is your best. If there are any problems, the clan will deal with them.”

I could see Mei struggling. After leaving the Blue Wind Pavilion, she had spent almost all her time studying soul cultivation to get her blessing under control. At several points, she had said she wanted to contribute more to the clan, but nothing had worked out. Now, I was giving her a huge opportunity to do just that, but after years of failure, she was struggling with the weight of it.

I softened my expression as best I could. “Just give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”

Mei dipped her head. “Yes… Ancestor Su.”

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After setting Mei up with the three jade slips and a large collection of wind cultivation techniques, I handed her off to ShouLi. I was still skeptical about the idea of a gu taming sect, but if that was what my clan’s leadership thought was best, then I wouldn’t stand in the way.

I checked in on a few more people, but, eventually, I returned to the place I had spent the majority of this life, my cultivation room in a remote corner of the Su Clan’s Hall of Ancestral Worship.

Once there, I began working on unraveling the secrets of ShouLi’s Rank 4 body cultivation technique.