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

Words : 1835 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

Even before rejoining the School of the Great Teacher, my martial and formation skills were near the limit of what I could accomplish as a Martial King 1, so during my time 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. The rate at which I unlocked new knowledge made me feel as if I had previously been working with one hand tied behind my back. However, that time and hard work hadn’t been completely wasted. It allowed me to slowly construct a firm foundation upon which this new information could be built. The biggest hurdle I had to overcome with Rank 5 alchemy was concocting Perfect pills without peak five-star affinities. This was possible, but only barely. I had to combine my mid five-star affinities, my enhanced qi control from my powerful soul, my space affinity, and my King-level will-locks. Using all these abilities at the same time was mentally exhausting, but it got the job done. Unfortunately, my limited affinities with the secondary elements limited the pills I was able to concoct. Even with those I could make, too much of my time and energy was spent on removing toxins, so their efficacies were nothing overly incredible, but a Perfect pill was a Perfect pill. If a single pill wasn’t effective enough, then just take a second one. With my recent purchases of multiple comprehension boosts, it didn’t take long for me to reach the point where I felt that all of my skills were being held back by my continued stay in Profound City and my lack of karmic energy, but I was still unwilling to leave without talking with Yan and the others first. So, I dedicated most of my time to training the school’s students. At first, I had only planned to guide them in soul cultivation, but I found that too many had already been focusing too heavily on only this one area of development. I couldn’t help everyone with everything, but I could assist the alchemists and formation specialists to begin integrating the studies of their professions into their work with soul and qi cultivation. Improving one’s soul improves one’s qi control. Improving one’s qi control improves one’s ability to perform alchemy and carve formations. Practicing such skills with focus and dedication can improve one’s soul. Everything was connected. Maybe it would be better to say that everything couldbe connected. Improving my soul through alchemy alone wasn’t the right path, but spending all of one’s time alone in a room reading philosophy books wasn’t much better. Instead of separating off the different skills into distinct, individual silos, I wanted to find a way to steadily improve all of them with a unified, 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. 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 during our meeting. “System, temporarily change LiTing’s and my appearance to match what we would naturally look like. After twelve hours, I want our appearances to revert back to their current forms.” 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 had seen each other in years, and afterward, we wouldn’t be seeing each other again for several more. Arriving as myself was the only thing I could do to make this reunion feel more meaningful. --------------------------------------------------- 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 the level of 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 also beyond what I could get from the System. While he couldn’t become a city lord, he planned to study the position in depth. He wanted to figure out which cities provided the best opportunities for advancement and learn any information that could help him realize those opportunities. He was also consulting with Ning ChenKun and had been offering his advice on different courses of action ChenKun could consider. 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 suspect a few of them to exist. I’ll keep digging, but it’s hard to get much solid information on them while trapped here.” 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 all next, but I don’t plan to 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.” --------------------------------------------------- The day after meeting with our friends, LiTing and I departed Profound City. We left the city gate as a group of nine. Six of our companions were students from 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 were 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 shouldn’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 all 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 in place that could block their signals. 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. They might not be useful, but it was worth a try. I also gave everyone a few other formation stones that I thought might be helpful. Unfortunately, we could only base our preparations on what we had faced on the paths 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 are forced into the holding area, send a signal with your stone. Let’s try to help each other succeed.” Everyone, including LiTing, bowed to me. I nodded, and we each set off in a different direction.

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

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