Chapter 144: Life 66, Age 28, Martial Grandmaster 1

Words : 1402 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

Setting up shop in a remote corner of Mortal City had been nice and simple. The only downside was the severe lack of customers. I had rented a location in an area that was known for herbalists. While the location was to my benefit in procuring ingredients, few people who came to this area were in search of pills. Instead, most were alchemists looking to make their own pills. However, the lack of sales didn’t bother me. With the help of the high-quality herbs available, I was able to make Rank 3 pills with efficacies of around 125%. Once I figured out how one of the formations on my cauldron worked, letting me draw in environmental energy and infuse it into a pill before it solidified, I was able to increase that to over 130% standard efficacy. Once word of the quality of my pills was known, I was confident that many cultivators would seek me out. Until then, I wasn’t worried about the slow pace of things. Both Brother Mao and I needed time to improve. For Mao, that meant taking the generous stipend I was providing him and paying for lessons in several subjects. Servant disciples weren’t allowed to purchase karmic energy, so his goal was to improve his combat and formation abilities high enough that he would qualify as an outer sect disciple. As an ungraded servant disciple, he had a long way to go, but that was a problem that money could easily solve. For me, there were a few short-term goals I wanted to accomplish. First was quickly reaching Peak Grandmaster. While I was exploring and learning about the sect, I had to keep in mind that I was ultimately trying to rush for credits. My second goal was to gain additional formation skills and knowledge. While I wouldn’t mind having a tutor share their insights on the topic, my primary concern was finding books I could store in my mental library and keep with me. In the end, my main limitation as a formation specialist was a lack of knowledge of inscriptions. An instructor could help me understand how to use inscriptions more fluidly and effectively, but paying for instruction without having a solid grasp of inscriptions first would be a waste of time and money. The final short-term goal I set for myself was to find more ways to make contribution points. I didn’t want to have to set up a pill stall every life going forward just to earn karmic energy. With these goals in mind, I gave Brother Mao a storage bag bulging with various Rank 3 pills, left him to manage the shop, and headed back to the Earth Peak. My first stop was the Mission Hall. Unlike the Twin Mountains Sect where missions were posted on a simple bulletin board, the Nine Rivers Sect’s Mission Hall was far more advanced. When I entered the Hall, I noticed a dozen or so wall partitions running from the entryway up to the counter at the far end of the building. Each partition had an illusion formation that projected the various missions available to sect members of all different ranks and cultivation levels. Different partitions served different ranks, so I first had to move to an area near the left wall where the Grandmaster-level outer sect disciple missions were posted. Once I found the right spot, I studied all of the available missions closely. I was surprised to find that nearly all of them were battle missions. Each post had a city and the name of its Lord. The requests were to fight against an invading army or to invade another city. The only other missions available were menial tasks like the stone carving one Mao had mentioned earlier. I looked at the missions available to inner sect disciples and found that while battle missions were still available, they had more options related to constructing formations. Some of these were to create Qi Gathering Formations for disciples on other peaks, but most of them were for building formations in one random city or another. I had no interest in fighting anyone’s battles, and the menial tasks paid extremely poorly, so I left the Mission Hall with nothing but disappointment. The lack of missions I could accomplish via alchemy was troublesome, and my formation skills weren’t going to be high enough to complete any missions unless I improved dramatically. While I wanted to improve, I would have to rely on my store to generate contribution points for me for the foreseeable future. Instead of worrying about this, I moved on to the peak’s Scripture Hall. While Dragon Peak housed the cultivation techniques, Earth Peak housed most of the formation-related techniques and knowledge. Earth Peak also had a wider array of martial techniques available, but those could wait for later. An older deacon in the King realm was in charge of the Pavilion and was responsible for retrieving and copying purchased manuals. I winced when I saw this since it meant that I would have a hard time rummaging through their books, but it was still something worth looking into at a later date. I quickly scanned through a reference book that listed everything available to outer sect disciples. It was disappointing, but I found a few books on basic and intermediate Rank 3 formations. I had to trade in 3 spirit stones for enough contribution points to buy both of them, but I considered that a more than fair price. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Besides simple information books, there were also manuals for techniques to help when creating formations. I considered purchasing a few of them, but I didn’t know which would be worth the cost. I had learned that in alchemy, there were a few techniques that were nearly mandatory to be a decent alchemist, such as ones to improve pill efficacy, but there were many that were only useful to low-skilled practitioners. “System, how much to prevent the Trial from affecting my mind or wiping my memories?” Protection from Trial Formation. Cost is not possible to calculate at this time. That wasn’t good. If I couldn’t even get a cost, that meant the mind-wiping formation was at a very high level. I was pretty sure that it was only affecting my short-term memory, which wasn’t too much of a problem, but I needed to try and take precautions. “System, when I leave the Trial, I want my mental state to revert to exactly how it was before I entered, removing any changes that occur while inside.” Mental Reversion. Cost 1 million credits. That wasn’t bad. It was unfortunate that I would have no idea what mental effects I would be under, if any, but the cost of that knowledge was beyond what I could afford. I could try one thing though... “System, how much to restore my memories from my first time in the Trial?” Cost is not possible to calculate at this time. I figured as much, but it was worth asking. Setting up a situation where the System would instantly restore my memories was likewise impossible. “Purchase the scheduled mental reversion so that when I leave the Trial, I am restored to my previous state.” Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 million credits. 709,799,004 credits remaining. With protections in place, I left Mortal City and headed to the Exam. With the prohibitive cost of entry, there was no need to wait for a slot, and I got to enter the Trial immediately. I stepped into the dark portal, and seemingly an instant later, I stepped out of it. The scribe at the counter gave me a bored look and spoke in a monotone voice. “Promotion to ungraded inner sect disciple confirmed. Congratulations. Hand me your jade.” I did so, and it was replaced with a new token made for an inner sect disciple. With a smile on my face, I returned to my shop. When I entered, I was greeted with a wide, flattering smile from Brother Mao. He was standing next to a somewhat obese man in richly embroidered robes. “Senior Brother Su, welcome back. May I introduce you to Senior Brother Pang? He is from the PangBo Merchant Association. He is here with an excellent offer for us.”

Chapter 144: Life 66, Age 28, Martial Grandmaster 1

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