Chapter 174: Life 68, Age 39, Martial Lord 4

Words : 1435 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

I was about to lose my largest backing in this world, and if Ning ChenKun had any ulterior motives, this would be the perfect time to put them into action. He had said he wanted me to join the Ning Clan, but how sincere had he been? More importantly, by the way I was acting, he would be able to guess a few important pieces of information. He might not know about the Earth-Rank fire seed, but once he learned such a valuable item went missing, he wouldn’t have too much difficulty connecting its absence with my request to have everyone hide away in the sect. I was in a potentially risky situation, but that was nothing unfamiliar to me. As usual, I would simply use it as an opportunity to test my benefactor’s trustworthiness. I could have acted less dramatically and tried to prevent him from knowing for certain that Emperor Li had given me something of such immense value, but that would have risked my friends’ lives at the very moment I had taken a solid step toward preserving their memories. As Ning ChenKun looked at me, I knew what I needed to do. I could give him some simple information that should satisfy his curiosity for the moment, and I could figure out an actual plan when I had more time to consider my options. I took out a piece of paper and wrote a quick note. Yan. I have what we need. Stop looking. You’re being watched by people who know too much. I folded the paper and handed it over without sealing it. “Please deliver that to Yan. It’s important.” He took the letter in one hand and tapped it against his other palm a few times, but he didn’t look at it. We both knew he would look at it later, but not looking at it in front of me showed he was willing to give me a modicum of courtesy. “We are now beyond protecting you from a minor Lord of an unimportant clan.” I nodded gravely. “Don’t worry. I will repay my debt to you.” He stared at me for a long moment before waving a hand in dismissal. I didn’t feel the same connection to Ning ChenKun that I did with my friends, but for several lives now, he had been someone I had been able to rely on. Not turning on me when he had to know that Emperor Li had given me some kind of treasure raised my estimation of him yet again. I didn’t necessarily trust him enough to take him back with me, but time and again he solidified himself as someone I could work with. --------------------------------------------------- Being unable to leave the sect didn’t change my life much, but for YuLong and JiaQi, things weren’t so simple. They had been spending most of their time completing combat missions, and that would no longer be possible if they couldn’t visit the empires. All I could do was send them supplies to support their training as best as I could. Since I could only visit Profound City or the Earth Peak, I no longer had any way of meeting with them, so I relied on the Ning faction to ferry packages down to them. Yan had taken my warning seriously, but he remained in the Academy to complete his Grandmaster-level coursework. There was a risk involved in doing so, but as long as the head of the Academy didn’t turn against him, he would be as safe there as he would be in the sect. LiTing and I had everything we needed to continue progressing, so we simply bulled forward. I wasn’t willing to explain everything to her, but I did my best to make clear how important it was for us to become Formation and Artifact Emperors as soon as possible. I wanted to rush things, but I knew that would only lead to a weak foundation. With the experience of past lifetimes and the knowledge contained in Emperor Shen’s books, I felt I had good odds of being able to do my part in making memories orbs even if I rushed, but LiTing was a different story. She was learning high-level refining from scratch, and that took time. I maintained my six-month routine and reached Peak Lord after three more years. As I did so, I spent a significant amount of my time reviewing Emperor Shen’s books on formations and pushed my knowledge of Rank 4 formations much further than I had thought possible. The notes he had left me showed that Emperor Shen was a true master of formations. Whether from a blessing or natural talent, he not only knew what to do but also knew how to explain it. I couldn’t help but wonder why such texts weren’t available to everyone in the sect. With these books, the level of formation knowledge here would soar. There were a few possible explanations for this, but none of them were good. They wanted us to master these skills, but they didn’t want to give us the tools to do it. Why? Even though I didn’t know why this knowledge wasn’t available to everyone, I still had to thank Emperor Shen for giving these books to me. The sect might not have allowed them to be freely available to everyone, but now that I had them, what I chose to do with them in the future was my decision to make. If I started a true faction of my own one day, they could be invaluable for training my subordinates. She smiled at the compliment. “I’ve gotten a lot better at mixing durability and sharpness. This version won’t have any problems against Rank 4 armor and weapons. It should also be able to tear apart those Rank 4 rock monsters you were fighting, but don’t expect too much damage against the King-level ones. Unarmored human Martial Kings, though? They won’t stand a chance against it. You also shouldn’t have any problems with it breaking unless you’re up against a Rank 5 weapon or something specifically built to destroy artifacts.” I grinned. “I can’t wait to try it out. How did your skills advance so quickly?” “I’ve taken a master. She’s been teaching me a lot that isn’t in any of the books. According to Master Jin, I’ll be ready for the Path of Mind well before JiaQi and the others get here, so I won’t slow you down.” I raised an eyebrow. “Master Jin?” LiTing nodded. “Yes, she’s the Master of the Metal Peak.” I smirked but controlled myself to not give too much information away. I now had a solid guess as to who the owner of the third memory orb was. “Sounds good. When do you plan to advance to King?” “Tomorrow.” After a little more small talk, I was expecting LiTing to leave, but instead, she fidgeted awkwardly with a pensive expression. “Fang... can you turn me back into the First Disciple? I know you said there was a cost to do so... and I want to look like this the next time we meet with JiaQi, but...” I waved her concerns to the side. “Don’t worry about it. Once or twice isn’t a big issue. But can you tell me why?” She hesitated. “The... The School of the Great Teacher...” I blinked. “The what?” “The School of the Great Teacher. A few months ago, our students were forced to leave the Path of Soul, so they started a school in the city. I’ve been there a few times, but without us guiding them, the school is starting to fracture into different factions. I want to see if I can help stabilize things. You... you should consider going there too. I’m sure they would want to see you.” I started clicking my teeth together like I had done as the ‘Great Teacher’ when I needed to fidget but didn’t want my students to see. I needed to figure out how to handle this. “Don’t worry. Go back to your room and I’ll initiate the change.” LiTing gave me a deep bow. “Thank you, Teacher.” Moments after she left, I made the purchase. “System, change LiTing back into the form of Meng LuYao. Make sure her apparent age is consistent with her cultivation level and previous appearance.” Purchase confirmed. Cost 150,000 credits. 6,482,664,588 credits remaining. That taken care of, I had to decide how to handle this school.

Chapter 174: Life 68, Age 39, Martial Lord 4

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