G. Tolley
patreon
Chapter 451 – Life 117, Age 21, Martial Master Peak
🕑 Added 2025-12-15 20:57:28 +0000 UTCWhile everyone in the sect made ready to enter the Shattered Blades Realm, I slipped back to Whistling Arrow City, paid for a room at a modest inn, and lowered myself to the floor as I connected to an avatar in my inner world. Ever since my meeting with Emperor Li, I had been rushing around in a panic, guided by nothing more than a few cryptic remarks. I needed to at least try to learn more about what was really going on.
First, I needed to confirm my suspicions. “System, Emperor Li said that his disciple will be coming after me. Is this disciple Yong JinZhan?”
The cost of this information cannot be calculated at this time.
I narrowed my eyes. “What is Yong JinZhan’s current mission?”
The cost of this information cannot be calculated at this time.
“What reward will he receive if he completes his current mission?”
The cost of this information cannot be calculated at this time.
This was worrying. Jon was the only truly dangerous opponent that I had ever faced. Without any additional information, I had to assume the person coming after me was him.
But then, why wouldn’t the System confirm it? If my opponent really was Jon, then a simple confirmation wouldn’t change anything. So, the cost of such information should have been negligible.
This suggested that my opponent was not, in fact, Jon.
Sadly, this line of reasoning was a dead end. Relying on it to believe that Jon wasn’t my opponent would only justify the System in not giving me an answer when it really was Jon.
In any case, the true identity of my opponent was of little importance. Preparing to face Jon meant preparing for nearly anything. If it turned out that someone else was my opponent, these preparations would only be more effective.
With this in mind, I refocused on the work in front of me.
The Amorphous Blade Sect had been built on a simple principle: everyone needed to earn their affinities through hard work. Talent mattered, but none of our people were anywhere close to hitting the limits of their talents. As long as they stayed disciplined, their talents would be enough to see them all the way through to Peak Grandmaster.
Converting talents into affinities took time, though, and time was no longer a luxury that we could afford to waste.
“System, give every member of my sect permanent peak eight-star qi and wu affinities. Also, give Kan permanent peak seven-star qi, wu, guandao, and lightning affinities, and give JiuLi permanent peak seven-star wood, qi, wu, and guandao affinities.”
Purchase confirmed. Cost 27 credits. 57,957 credits remaining.
With the System treating each person’s affinities as a separate purchase, the total cost of these low-level affinities was rather absurd. For the same price, I could have given everyone peak four-star affinities in multiple elements. Considering the challenges ahead of us, maybe I should have. However, I was worried that making things too easy would destroy our people’s work ethic.
Since affinities for qi and wu didn’t register on any of our testing orbs, I could adjust them without anyone realizing what I had done. At most, they would find qi slightly easier to control. This would speed up everyone’s advancement, but the change would be subtle enough that they could reasonably attribute it to their own genius. If I had given them all four-star affinities, however, they might have started asking inconvenient questions.
This done, I found a small, Bureau-Approved herb shop and purchased a large quantity of low-quality Rank 2 ingredients. Then, I returned to my room at the inn, sealed the door, and began churning out pills as fast as I possibly could.
I needed a lot of contribution points, and the most efficient way to acquire them was by selling pills. So, tapping into everything that I had learned about splitting my attention across multiple avatars, I placed a pair of alchemy furnaces side-by-side and started concocting two pills simultaneously. Then, when this proved to be less burdensome than I had expected, I added a third.
Normally, it would have been more efficient to focus on a single furnace and concoct the best pill possible. However, with the way the Bureau structured its prices, there was no real incentive to waste time or willpower concocting eight- and nine-patterned pills.
Therefore, I instead focused on one-patterned pills. These had the greatest rate of return for the time invested, and by keeping the pills simple, I was able to simultaneously concoct multiple pills much more easily.
A month later, I had scraped together all the contribution points I needed. So, I went to the Bureau and purchased the Rank 1 and 2 manuals for the only Peak-Earth earth-metal-guandao cultivation technique available.
Ideally, I would have secured Peak-Earth techniques for everyone, but earning enough points for just this one had already taken far too long. Sure, I could have purchased them through the System, but having Peak-Profound weapon techniques was already suspicious enough, since my ‘library’ had supposedly been stolen from the Li Clan.
Of course, I could have given Peak-Earth techniques to those who were still cultivating pure elemental techniques, but learning to cultivate such a complicated technique would have taken time we didn’t have. The Shattered Blades Realm was set to open in only a few months, and we needed to be ready for it.
Technique manuals in hand, I used a few gold to stock up on the herbs that were easier to buy than grow. Then, I headed back to our stronghold.
---------------------------------------------------
Upon my return, I first ensured that everyone had the resources they needed to continue advancing at a rapid pace. Then, I went down to one of the rooms that we had carved out beneath our primary cultivation hall. The Qi Gathering Formation that fed the hall’s spirit fire was focused upwards. So, from beneath it, I could tap into the fire’s guandao qi while still being able to access the earth and metal qi that was present in the natural environment.
After taking a moment to steady my thoughts, I pulled out my new Rank 2 guandao, swallowed a Cicada Pill, and allowed it to extract the thinnest sliver of my soul possible.
With its prize secured, the pill’s energy sank into my cultivation base, and I immediately began dismantling my meridians. All of the metal qi that I had cultivated was simply dumped into the surrounding environment, but I carefully guided every last trace of guandao qi into my weapon, letting the bond take shape. When the process finally ended, I swallowed an Energy Expulsion Pill to clean out the last of the dregs, then leaned back against the wall and let out a long, steady breath.
Yet again, my cultivation base had been stripped away, leaving me as little more than a mere mortal. The easy part was done. Now came the real work: creating a new cultivation technique and using it to climb back up to Peak Master in the five months I had remaining.
Objectively, the cultivation technique that I had purchased from the Bureau was excellent. It would allow me to forge a solid foundation, and the way it funneled earth into metal and metal into guandao produced guandao qi that was far deadlier than normal. The problem was the technique’s intent. The mental impulses the technique produced were focused around turning a cultivator into an “ideal warrior.” As far as the creator of this technique was concerned, the guandao wasn’t a tool—it was a weapon.
As long as I cultivated this technique properly, I would likely be able to ignore these impulses. However, even suppressed, they would still be there, pressing against the edges of my thoughts whenever I opened my acupoints. Worse, to the best of my knowledge, these mental impulses were an echo of the Laws embedded into the technique itself. Cultivating it would be imbuing my body with Laws of slaughter.
The combination of my strong soul and the resistance I had purchased from the System would help with this, but as I advanced into the Bloodline Tier, these impulses would inevitably begin to shift my thoughts in subtle ways. I was planning to rely on this foundation for years to come, so better to get it right the first time than create a mess that I would just have to clean up later.
My goal in this life wasn’t to become a slaughtering machine. My goal was to build my sect, refine exceptional weapons, and master the Central Continent’s formations. With this in mind, I scoured my mental library for techniques related to construction, reinforcement, shaping, and structural control.
For metal and earth, this wasn’t much of a problem. I had plenty of existing techniques to draw from, and I had already used these elements to create more than a dozen different techniques. So, assembling a framework that roughly matched the Bureau’s technique wasn’t particularly difficult.
The guandao portion, however, was another matter entirely. That newly purchased technique was my only Earth-Rank guandao technique. I didn’t have any others that I could use for reference, leaving me with no choice but to piece together acupoint and meridian structures from a small handful of Peak-Profound techniques.
This was far from ideal, but after a significant amount of trial and error, I managed to produce a pair of Rank 1 and 2 techniques that my analysis ability considered Mid-Earth. Now, all I needed was a little help to take them to the next level.
“System, upgrade my two newly created technique manuals to Peak-Earth.”
Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 credit.
Would the Bureau question where these techniques had come from? Possibly, but I could confidently claim that I had created them myself, relying on nothing but the technique that I had purchased, the information in my library, and a little help from the blessing of one of my sect members.
Now, all that was left for me to do was to cultivate it.
---------------------------------------------------
With our six-month deadline swiftly approaching, I started to notice a bit of discontent among the members of my sect—especially among those who had reached Peak Disciple more than a month earlier. They were only a few months away from entering stagnation, but they couldn’t advance because we were holding them back. As hot-tempered youths with weak souls, this delay must have seemed interminable.
Yes, we had told them about the Secret Realm, but I hadn’t been able to make any promises about what treasures they might find there—I scarcely knew myself. So, it wasn’t surprising that a vocal minority was starting to believe we were wasting their time.
To try and quell this discontent, I called a meeting of the entire sect. They needed more information, and while I couldn’t tell them about the Shattered Blades Realm, I could tell them about our real opponent—Jon. I didn’t intend to offer them vague threats or warnings, though. I just wanted to let them know what would happen once Jon was defeated.
After a brief rundown of Jon’s ability to copy blessings and gain strength through challenges—information that any hidden observers would hopefully assume had come from the Li Clan’s library—I got to the important bit.
“Our opponent is dangerous,” I said, letting my gaze sweep across the yard, “and we all need to work together to defeat him. But this isn’t a random disaster. It is a trial placed in our path by the Earthly Dao. And, as with all things the Dao touches, there is balance. If we emerge victorious, each of us will be granted a powerful boon.”
This got people’s attention, but for some, vague promises were as worthless as empty threats. So, I decided to lay out some concrete promises.
“At a minimum, each of you will receive a boost to one of your core talents. The level of this boost will depend on the cultivation base of our opponent at the time of his defeat, but I can guarantee you that it will be enough to bring one of your affinities all the way up to peak four-star.”
From what I had seen previously, this wasn’t actually how Jon’s blessing worked. If Jon failed a mission, he would die, and his Ultimate Rival System would transfer to the leader of whichever group had defeated him. The only reason I had been getting boons was because my System had soundly rejected the integration of Jon’s.
What I said wasn’t a lie, though. A dark gray streak might have appeared on the truth stones of anyone listening in, but I fully intended to turn this promise into a reality. I had more than enough credits to spread around, and if my sect was able to help me defeat Jon, I would happily use them to give everyone a decent reward.
If I had been pushing for everyone to enter stagnation, this promise likely wouldn’t have been enough. But since I was only asking them to delay their breakthrough for a couple more months, the allure of a four-star affinity was able to keep everyone in line.
---------------------------------------------------
At dawn on the day the Secret Realm was set to open, I gathered everyone together, and we set out for Whistling Arrow City.
When we arrived, the Bureau felt less like an office and more like a mobilized command post. Cultivators were streaming through the doors in an unbroken flow, while officials did their best to direct traffic with clipped, impatient gestures.
Our group was spotted the moment we entered the building. Only a few heartbeats later, an escort arrived and led us to a secluded suite tucked against the back wall.
Over the next few hours, attendants cycled in and out with trays of food and steaming cups of tea. They were polite, but their expressions were tight with the pressure of a schedule that was already slipping.
Finally, several hours after midday, one of the Bureau’s elders arrived. He didn’t waste words on pleasantries. He just signaled for us to rise, then guided us out into the main hall.
Sometime during our wait, the building’s feverish bustle had vanished. What had once been a hive of activity was now eerily silent.
The elder brought us to the massive black portal that was floating in the center of the hall, where he flicked his sleeves, motioning for us to enter.
“This will take you to the entrance of the Shattered Blades Realm,” he said, his voice flat. “Good luck. I hope that all of you will return to us safely.”
After sweeping my gaze across my sect, I gave each of our elders a silent nod.
YuLong stepped forward without hesitation, leading us through the portal and into the waiting darkness.
Comments
Chris M
I get that these chapters are hard to write but for the record I'm enjoying them.
Michael Ferguson
I'm a procrastinater in real life, but stagnation is no joke. Seriously stupid. They could lose, and then what let everyone go and recruit new people?
Michael Ferguson
Glad I'm not the only one annoyed that Fang didn't do the ascension trile sooner. If it was me I would tell Fang to fuck off and leave.
