Chapter 115: Life 64, Age 16, Martial Disciple 1

With the Pavilion’s fastest carriage, the trip to the Nine Rivers Sect was only supposed to take a month and a half. I didn’t want to cultivate during that time because it would interfere with plans I had for the near future. Still, there were two things I could do during the trip so that I didn’t waste any time. The first was studying my Earth-Rank cultivation technique. I had looked at it several times already, and I spent time trying to understand it, but I had never actually cultivated it before, so I was expecting there to be issues. I would have to work those out before I could cultivate it successfully. As an Earth-Rank technique, it was significantly more complicated than the ones I had used previously. I would need to open a total of 361 acupoints throughout my body. Each of these points required complex qi filters that would both purify the qi and allow it to flow freely into my body without turbulence. For some reason, the technique included four different filter designs which were applied to different acupoints seemingly at random. I wanted to use this as my cultivation technique in this life, but before I did so, I wanted to understand how it would influence me mentally. “System, how much to upgrade my technique appraisal to work on everything up to Rank 3 Earth.” Cost 49,995,000 credits. Too much for the moment. “Upgrade it to only Rank 2 Earth, then.” Confirmed. Cost 495,000 credits. 125,265,655 credits remaining. I appraised the first two volumes of the technique. Writ of True Earth, Peak-Earth Rank 1 Cultivation Technique, Earth Qi, Effects: Makes one more loyal. Writ of True Earth, Peak-Earth Rank 2 Cultivation Technique, Earth Qi, Effects: Makes one more loyal. Loyalty was an interesting effect. Had Manager Cao been trying to make me more loyal to the Pavilion when she gave this to me? That didn’t make much sense. She couldn’t have been expecting me to cultivate this technique personally, right? Was she simply trying to make my subordinates more loyal to me? This was possibly the kind of technique they used for all their high-level employees. Not a slave mantra, but something that would serve a similar purpose. I thought about this effect for a while and whether it was something that I would be willing to accept. The implications of it being similar to a slave mantra worried me on an instinctive level, but I pushed beyond that and forced myself to analyze it critically. After thinking about it, I decided I didn’t find the effect too objectionable. If I joined a sect or took a master, I would generally expect myself to maintain loyalty to them. A technique working to reinforce that was not the worst possibility. The fact that these feelings of loyalty may remain after death was a slightly troubling possibility, but if the sect were true to me, I would be true to it anyway. If they betrayed me, any remaining thoughts of loyalty from a technique shouldn’t have too much of an effect on me. I just needed to make sure that if I felt its influence was becoming too powerful, I ended my life immediately instead of letting it linger. In truth, at this point, I didn’t have a better idea of what kind of mental effect would be acceptable, so I was willing to walk down a path of loyalty for at least one lifetime and see where it took me. I familiarized myself with the technique as much as possible, but when I was convinced there was nothing left to learn until I cultivated it, I put the book away and closed my mental library. I wasn’t ready to start advancing quite yet. Next, I looked deep into my soul where the spatial fire seed had been waiting for me. Long ago, I had purchased knowledge about how to expand my storage space without needing to spend credits on it. The key to that was this fire seed, but my knowledge of how to use it was somewhat limited. I had a basic idea from the earlier purchase, but before I started messing around with things, I needed more. “System, how much for complete knowledge on how to use the spatial fire seed?” Mastery of Seed of the Profound-Rank Expanding Realms Fire. Cost 10 billion credits. All right then... “How much for limited mastery, knowledge of ways to use it to expand my storage space?” Cost 10 million credits. “Confirm.” Confirmed. 115,265,655 credits remaining. The attendant gathered the flowers for me and took me to a small workshop in the basement. It was cramped, but it was all I needed. I sat down to begin working. I would have liked to use one of my fire seeds to concoct pills more quickly, but I didn’t think I would be able to control the spatial seed properly, and I wasn’t willing to risk trying to swap it out with the seed of the Cold Mountain Fire. I thought about extracting a strand of spirit fire from the Cold Mountain seed, but it would be nearly impossible to use without qi. Instead, I had to rely on controlling a common flame with my fire affinity and the few specks of natural energy in my body. It was simple work that I could have done with my eyes closed, but my lack of energy made the process slow. At the end of the hour, I had only been able to make two pills. I walked outside the room and found the attendant waiting for me. “Will that be all, sir?” I held up my two pills. “Please sell these for me. I will return inside for another two hours. You may deliver any remaining funds from the sale to me at that time.” She quickly glanced at the pills, simply noting that they should be worth more than the two-hour fee, then nodded. “Of course, sir. I am happy to be of service.” I turned around and got back to work. Two hours later, I exited the room to see the attendant waiting for me. “Hello, sir. 30 silver for the pills minus 10 silver for the room fee leaves 20 silver,” she said, handing over two coins. I weighed them in my hand for a moment while I thought. “How much longer are you open for the day?” “About four more hours, sir.” “How much does a decent hotel in the city cost for a night?” “It depends on what you are looking for, but there are options which may suit you for as low as 10 silver a day.” I was sure there had to be cheaper options available, but I was willing to spend a bit on somewhere nice and clean. I handed the attendant the three pills I had just made. “Three more, same quality as the last two. So, 45 silver, right? Give me four hours in the room and ten more peonies. That should be 30 silver. You can hold onto the excess for now, and we can settle up at the end of the day.” “Of course, sir,” she said, carrying out my request. Paying to use an alchemy workshop was eating into my profits, but buying a cauldron and making them in an inn room wasn’t an option without more upfront capital. As the hours passed, my concentration and speed waned. I was only able to make eight more pills, leaving two flowers for next time. I sold five of the pills and kept three to help me advance my cultivation. Once I began breaking through, the speed at which I would be able to work would significantly increase. My first day in South Gate City, I left the Pavilion with 90 silver in my pocket. The entire process of earning money made me swear to myself to never go through a reset without a properly stocked storage space again. After paying 10 silver at a nearby inn, I went to my room and quickly fell asleep. I needed to cultivate, but that could wait for tomorrow.