Chapter 177 – Life 68, Age 46, Martial King 1

Before rejoining the School of the Great Teacher, my martial and formation skills were already reaching the limit of what I could accomplish with my current cultivation level, so beginning my star there, I shifted my focus more toward alchemy. When I did, my sizable boost in comprehension showed its effects, and I was able to rapidly absorb the information in Emperor Li’s books.

It wasn’t long before I reached the point where I felt all of my personal skills were being held back by my continued stay in Profound City and my lack of the karmic energy I needed to advance, but I was unwilling to leave before talking with Yan and the others first. So, I spent more time training the school’s students.

After first, I had planned on mainly guiding them in soul cultivation, but I found that too many had been focusing too heavily on only this one area of development. I couldn’t help with everything, but for the alchemists and formation specialists, I began working on integrating their study of professions with their soul and qi cultivation.

Instead of separating off the different skills into individual silos, I wanted to find a way to steadily improve all of them with an integrated, holistic approach. This was only the first spark of an idea, and while all my comprehension bonuses helped, I didn’t have the experience or knowledge needed to completely design such an ambitious educational framework. However, my time at the school gave me valuable insights into how to better train myself and others that I might be able to use to do so in the future.

In the time that I wasn’t training others or improving my alchemy, I dedicated myself to pushing my earth affinity to peak four-star. I could enter the Earth Peak Trial a maximum of four times a year, but I needed a large number of points to make that happen, so most of my free time was spent completing missions to earn contribution points.

The more experience I got in the Trial, and the better the weapon LiTing could provide me with, the deeper I was able to push. During my two-year stay at the school, I was able to raise my earth affinity to high four-star, and I made meaningful progress toward pushing it even further.

This slow life as the Great Teacher finally came to an end when Yan and the others arrived in Profound City.

After talking the situation over with LiTing, we decided I needed to make a purchase to set everyone’s minds at ease.

“System, temporarily change LiTing’s and my appearance back to what we would look like naturally. After twelve hours, I want our appearances to revert back to their current form.”

Purchase Confirmed. Cost 450,000 credits. 999,550,000 credits remaining.

I could have stayed in my Chen WuJing guise for our meeting, but Yan’s reaction to it last time had been uncomfortable. This would be the first time we saw each other in years, and afterward, we wouldn’t see each other again for several more. Coming as myself was the only thing I could do to make this reunion feel more meaningful.

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At my insistence, LiTing and I met Yan, JiaQi, and YuLong near the city’s gate and quietly led them to Ning ChenKun’s section of the city.

We did not speak or make any overt displays of affection during this time. We silently greeted each other and kept a wary eye out for anyone who might try to sneak attack us during our short journey.

Once everyone was inside my apartment, JiaQi made to rush toward LiTing, but I held up a hand to stop her. I gathered everyone in the center of the room and activated a series of Rank 5 formations to guard us against any eavesdroppers.

I had wanted to purchase something from the System to make our meeting more secure, but my formations were solid enough that anyone at Martial King or below wouldn’t be able to listen in without us knowing about it. They wouldn’t do much against an Emperor, but purchasing something to protect us from an Emperor was beyond my budget in any case.

Besides just formations, I also looked into other potential ways that could let us communicate securely. These ranged from limited forms of telepathy to books that only the five of us would be able to read. There were possibilities, but the same limitations seemed to hold true for all of them. If they could protect us against an Emperor, they required Emperor-level prices.

After a lot of brainstorming, I only found one truly secure way to tell my friends anything, and that was to do it at the very end of my life. I could pass them vital information, and then they could store the knowledge of it in a memory orb to be reabsorbed during their next life. It would be an incredibly secure method of information transfer, but it wasn’t something that was available to us for the time being. We would just have to be careful with what we said.

Once I was confident we were as protected as I could make us, I opened my hands and smiled.

“Alright, we can talk now. If an Emperor or higher is watching us, I can’t do anything to stop it, but we’re as safe as we’re going to get.”

Instantly, JiaQi rushed and hugged LiTing. “I’ve missed you so much.”

As the two women talked excitedly, I looked at YuLong. He was no longer the excited young man in my memories. Time trapped in the sect had worn on him, and I could sense a feeling of frustration deep within him. 

In a way, this was unsurprising. Because of the identity of one of his classmates, he was forced to join the sect when he wanted to go home and see his parents. Now, because of me, he was trapped within the walls of the sect and was unable to leave for any reason. To add to that, I hadn’t been willing to explain to him anything about what was going on. 

Yan knew about the time loop, so he was able to plan around it. YuLong didn’t, and had to be thinking that his only life was being destroyed because of his companions.

I wanted to help, but I didn’t know how to do so. The only way to fix the situation was to explain everything to YuLong, but doing so now was far too risky. I just hoped he could hold out until the end.

Mustering a bit of courage, I walked over to YuLong and put an arm around him.

“I’m sorry.”

He silently bowed his head.

There was more we could have said, but it wasn’t needed. We both understood.

Once the greetings were out of the way, we sat down around a table and began discussing what happened to everyone over the past few years.

I wanted to tell them everything about Emperor Li and my time loops, but I knew doing so would be too dangerous. Instead, we simply spent time talking about trivial things, telling each other about what we had been up to and small things that happened along our journeys.

YuLong and JiaQi had been getting restless from being trapped within the sect and not being able to do any combat missions, so they had started teaching martial arts lessons. With the help of their blessings, they had both become quite popular as Lord-level trainers. Their cultivation level was lower than others, but their raw skills were among the best. 

These missions provided them with enough resources to be able to enter the Trials for a bit of extra exercise. And now that they had LiTing’s newest weapons, they would be able to tear them apart.

Since they had only been absorbing essence and not cultivating it, they had long since maxed out their rewards from the Lord-level Trial. However, as it was the only place they could gain real combat experience while stuck in the sect, they kept returning to hone their skills further.

After they were done with their stories, Yan told us a bit about his classes as a Grandmaster. His story made me somewhat glad I had skipped over those classes as they sounded like long years of drudgery with few rewards. However, after his first cohort of Masters completed their first term, he retook the Exam and was promoted to a core disciple.

As a Martial Lord 1 core disciple, he was in a solid position to become the steward of one of the cities under the sect’s control. Yan believed this to be an important step on the path of becoming a chosen disciple, and it was the path both Ning ChenKun and Lord Hao were walking. However, he also made it clear that no one had any true understanding of what qualified someone for the status of ‘chosen.’

Unfortunately, as we were all stuck within the walls of the sect, he couldn’t take advantage of this opportunity. I felt a tinge of bitterness from him, but he had already come to accept that this life was a sacrifice toward something greater. I was beginning to feel he believed that even more than I did. 

While he couldn’t become a city lord, he planned to study the position in depth. He wanted to learn which cities could provide the best opportunities for advancement and any information that could help him realize those opportunities.

His dedication to this topic seemed to confuse the other three, but they knew enough not to ask any deeper questions.

Once our group discussion was winding down, I pulled Yan away for a quick, private discussion. I took out the manual for making memory orbs and showed it to him.

“LiTing and I need to reach Martial Emperor. Then, we can start making these. I’ve tried to read it, but right now, it’s completely incomprehensible to me. I can’t even figure out what materials will be required. I will have to improve both my cultivation and formation skills before I can even begin to decipher it.”

Yan nodded, reached into his storage bag, and pulled out a piece of paper with a list of cities, kingdoms, and empires on it.

“I’ve been looking into the essence cultivation techniques you wanted. I haven’t been able to get my hands on one yet, but these are the locations where I confirmed a few of them to exist. You might be able to make a deal to get your hands on one of them, but don’t expect it to be easy.”

At a quick scan, I noticed a couple of familiar names, including the Brilliant Sun Empire, where I acquired my spatial fire seed. According to Yan, one of its powerful noble clans possessed a fire essence cultivation technique. That was a high priority target, but acquiring it would have to wait until I could travel about more freely.

“Thank you.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “LiTing and I are going to be heading up the mountain. I don’t know when we’re going to be able to see you next, but I doubt we’ll leave Earth City. We’ll wait for you there. If you need anything after we’re gone, just let the faction know. I’ll do what I can to help.”

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The day after meeting with our friends, LiTing and I departed Profound City.

We left the city gate as a group of nine. Six were students of the school who were ready to ascend the mountain, and the last was one of Ning ChenKun’s deathsworn. He was a Peak King who had broken through without using karmic energy. His future advancement would be limited, but he would still be able to advance to a low-level Emperor after reaching Earth City. 

Ning ChenKun had already made his way to Earth City earlier in the year, and this guard was someone he had left behind to help protect us. Now that we were advancing, he would be rejoining his master.

LiTing, me, and two of our students walked toward the Path of Mind while everyone else went to the Path of Soul. If the soul path was like those further down the mountain, the five of them would be able to stay safe by looking out for each other. We wouldn’t be so fortunate on the Path of Mind, but as long as no one made any mistakes, we wouldn’t be in any danger.

To give us an added layer of protection, I created a set of primitive communication formations that might allow us to coordinate as we walked the path. When qi was pushed into one of them, the other three would resonate in harmony, causing them to light up and emit a buzzing sound. In the future, I hoped to be able to develop them further so that we could transmit messages, but the sensitivity required for that would need a Rank 6 formation at least.

The usefulness of such a formation on the path was questionable. I didn’t know if we would be close enough to each other for the formations to work, and I didn’t know if there would be anything that could stop such formations from communicating with each other. Even if everything worked perfectly, if the ‘holding areas’ we were each sent to for failing a test weren’t the same, coordinating would be meaningless.

However, I still handed them out since they could prove useful.

I also gave everyone a few other formation stones that I thought might be helpful. Unfortunately, I could only base these preparations around what I had faced on the path lower down the mountain.

Just like it had been on the way from Yellow City to Profound City, the entrance to the Path of Mind to Earth City was a tunnel. After a short walk, we entered a hub room where a set of eight arches were labeled with each of the different professions.

I looked at each of my companions.

“Remember, if you have to enter the holding area, send a signal with your stone. Let’s try to help each other succeed if we can.”

Everyone, including LiTing, bowed to me. I nodded and we each set off in a different direction.