The Undying Immortal System

Before leaving the Pavilion, I spent several days preparing for the journey ahead.

First, I advanced my cultivation to Martial Disciple 5. This was a calculated decision. Upon entering the sect, I wanted to draw as little attention as possible. A cultivation base of Disciple 5 was neither too high nor too low to expect from an alchemist looking to join the Twin Mountains Sect.

Second, my storage space was a cube ten centimeters to a side, a little bigger than the size of an adult fist. That didn't give me enough room to store everything I might have liked, but it would allow me to carry a few essentials.

Mostly, I packed it with several small bottles of pills. These included Basic, Improved, and Superior Qi Gathering Pills, a few healing pills for different types of injuries, some energy recovery pills, and a few of the deadlier poison pills I had managed to concoct. The remaining space was barely enough to slip in a dozen or so gold and silver coins just in case they were needed.

As I was heading out of the Pavilion to begin my journey, Fan BingQing handed me a letter. She said that WuJing had written it for Elder Mu. If I decided to meet with the elder, then I should give him this letter.

With all my business in the Pavilion completed, it was time to head back to the Twin Mountains Sect. However, this time I paid for a private carriage.

The entrance to the sect was just as I remembered it. White cobblestones covered the ground, two paifang arches stood as the entrances to the two paths of the sect, and an ancient sect elder sat upon a dais. Oh, and the place was packed with hopeful young men and women looking to join the sect.

As I waited for the proceedings to begin, I studied the elder in front of me. WuJing had indicated that there was a high degree of factionalism inside the sect, and I needed to try to understand it. I thought it unlikely that symbols of one's faction would be worn openly since that would indicate serious rifts within the harmony of the sect, but I kept an eye open for such overt displays just in case.

The elder wore a dark gray-blue hanfu robe. It was the same color and had a similar cut to those worn by the sect deacons I had seen. However, it was adorned with delicate gold embroidery that I hadn't noticed before. Unfortunately, I wasn't close enough to make out the designs. I could only see light marks across his chest and thick bands at his wrists, collar, and hem.

The other thing that set his robe apart was its precise cut. His robe had thick cuffs and a peaked collar. The typical robe I had seen in the sect lay flat in these places. This cut gave him a more militaristic vibe. I had only seen one other person wearing a robe like this. It was the same style as what TianLei — TianBing? — was wearing when he attacked the Su Clan, though his robes were a paler blue.

My musings on the elder's wardrobe were cut off by a shout to begin the testing. It was time for me to make a choice. I could do exactly as I had done last time. Wait for the second round of exams. Be the seventh person to turn in my pills. And then, if everything worked out correctly, I would again be put in a room with Bao. I could have done that, but I didn't. I did not want to reopen that friendship just yet. Maybe in another life. In this one, I was going to advance to become an outer sect disciple as swiftly as possible.

I moved to be one of the first participants to enter the alchemy gate. Last time, I was careful so as not to be caught up in a brawl of sect hopefuls trying to force their way inside. Since that had only occurred in front of the fighter's gate, where an immense lightning strike had severely injured several people, I didn't need to worry.

Just as I began moving to the front of the crowd to enter the gate, a firestorm exploded in the area around the fighters' gate. I had been ready for a commotion, so I took the opportunity to cross the boundary into my own archway. Only later did I wonder about why it had been fire and not lightning.

The setup for the exam was the same as last time. Everyone was given ten peonies, and points would be awarded for each pill successfully produced.

This was the place of my second big decision. Thinking of everything WuJing had told me, I could guess that one of the perks of being the overseer for this exam was the ability to find and pluck promising talents from those attempting to join the sect. If I impressed the elder in charge, I might swiftly be inducted into his faction. The problem was that I didn't know who the elder was or anything about the faction he represented.

So, I decided to pass on this opportunity. I created two simple Mid-Purity pills and submitted them while saving the additional flowers for later. This result would be considered decent, but it wasn't something that would catch anyone's eye. I would do as WuJing suggested and find Elder Mu, hopefully in a way that wouldn't attract anyone else's attention.

As I went to hand in my pills, I took a moment to inspect the elder. His hanfu was the same color as the previous elder's, dark gray-blue with gold embroidery, but it had the flat cuffs and collar that I was more used to. The delicate golden lines on his chest were too far away for me to make out, but I could see that the thick lines around the cuffs and hem were made up of artistically entwined snakes.

Making a mental note of the differences, I turned in my pills and headed into the sect.

After entering the sect, I was brought to my room and introduced to my new roommate, but I declined the tour and meal. I was not willing to form a connection here during this life.

I wasn't sure how much attention would be paid to new recruits by the people in power, but I didn't want to stand out too much. I needed to get Elder Mu's attention while ideally avoiding that of the other elders. WuJing had warned about the waters of the sect running deep.

To that end, I should have acted normally and had dinner with my new roommate. I just… couldn't.

Instead, I spent my first days exploring the sect on my own. I had lived in this city for over a decade, but I had never really studied the place. I had just treated it as any regular city where everyone was a random stranger. I never even considered that factions might have been secretly plotting against each other in the dark.

What struck me even more deeply was when I opened my eyes to all the places in the sect I had previously ignored. I had treated the Provisions Hall I went to as the Provisions Hall, like it was only one. But this was a city of nearly a hundred thousand people. Of course there would be more than a single Provisions Hall. There were multiples of every type of building, each serving a different group of apartment buildings.

The city was set up in something close to a hexagonal grid. In each section, there was a Provisions Hall, Technique Hall, and Alchemy Workshop. These core buildings were then surrounded by three or four blocks of apartment buildings. While my new apartment was in a different block than last time, it was still in the same section of the grid.

To get a feel for the differences between these sections, I explored the public buildings in each of them. The deacons and servant disciples all acted similarly. They were always friendly and happy to help, and I couldn't find anything about the way they behaved that might suggest factional differences.

These public buildings were mainly run by servant disciples with a couple of deacons acting as managers. The deacons wore robes of the same gray-blue the elders did but without the golden embellishments. The servant disciples wore only simple pale blue robes.

I had hoped to see detailed embroidery announcing the factions each person was a member of, but unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky. Figuring out how people were divided would be a bit more challenging.

I worked under the assumption that if people worked together in a building, they would probably be members of the same faction. From there, I began to compile a complex chart of interrelations. I might not have been able to know who belonged to which faction, but I could at least group people together.

Was mapping out the relationships between all these people in the sect a waste of time? Initially, yes. It would help me in the moment, but the potential long-term benefits were somewhat limited. That was, of course, until I had an idea.

"System, I want to purchase a mental journal. I want to be able to mentally summon a book, write in it or read from it, and then mentally dismiss it. The information should persist through restarts. I don't care if others can see the book or not, whichever is cheaper."

Rank 1 Mental Journal. Cost 100 credits.

Note: This journal is an extension of your mental library. Its rank cannot exceed that of your mental library. This journal will not be visible nor tangible to any others.

I had only planned to use this to store mortal information, but it would be better to be as prepared as possible, right?

"Buy that for up to Rank 2."

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1,000 credits. 12,040 credits remaining.

With my new mental journal, I now had a way to record all the details about everyone in the sect, and I would retain it forever. In a future life, if I needed to know something, I could simply look it up.

Expanding upon this initial idea, I began recording other important notes on things to keep in mind during future restarts.

I lived in the city for a year before finally making a move to contact Elder Mu.

During that time, I raised my cultivation from Martial Disciple 5 to Martial Disciple Peak. This was a fast pace, but it was within the bounds of what would be expected from an alchemist with unlimited access to Qi Gathering Pills.

If anyone noticed my accelerated growth, they would likely expect it to result in a buildup of impurities and pill toxins. Of course, with Perfect pills and a well-practiced Peak-Yellow cultivation technique, neither of these was an issue.

I only spent a limited amount of time making pills. I didn't need the contribution points. I only did so to maintain the façade of a diligent disciple, and I only accrued enough points to barely cover the cost of rent. Also, when I did sell pills, I purposefully weakened them to give off the illusion that I was struggling with improving my skills.

I wanted any faction spies to believe that I was a mildly diligent, well-meaning disciple who was just starting to learn alchemy. I may have gone a bit overboard in this effort, but since the ruse didn't affect me overmuch, I kept it up.

In an effort to find a way to contact Elder Mu, I kept a close eye on the competitions held throughout the city. Whenever notices for such events were posted, they helpfully provided the name of the elder in charge. This elder may not be at the competition, but the deacon involved was likely their subordinate. This helped me add connections between various elders and deacons to my list.

Unfortunately, none of this brought me any closer to Elder Mu. He was never assigned to oversee any such competitions.

After a long, fruitless search, I gave up on trying to find the elder through these regular competitions and switched my focus to the outer sect preliminaries.

There were many testing locations for the preliminaries scattered around the city. I couldn't find information on the elders who were in charge of each location, but I did learn the names of each of the presiding deacons.

Thanks to my lists, I was able to quickly eliminate many of these deacons as belonging to one of the factions I had previously identified. With the now much shorter list of proctors, I systematically worked through it and learned everything I could about each deacon, eliminating anyone who I could connect back to a faction. In the end, I was left with only two names that I couldn't connect to a known elder.

Elder Mu could be behind both or neither of them. Either way, I no longer had the patience needed to continue my search. Both deacons were likely connected to elders who took a dim view of sect politics, so even if I didn't find Elder Mu, I would still end up with an elder who would keep me out of any messy factionalism.

Was all this work a waste of time? Should I have just asked the system to magic me the answer to my question? Maybe. But there were two reasons I didn't. First, the use of credits to purchase something I could learn on my own seemed frivolous. I wouldn't get any more until after I died, and using them on something like this would have been a waste.

The second reason I did the research myself was because I had nothing better to do. My cultivation had reached Martial Disciple Peak, and I wasn't keen on advancing without something better than a Mid-Yellow technique which I would only get after meeting with Elder Mu. Additionally, while my alchemy skills might still be limited, I didn't know of any way to improve them further without learning how to use the seed of the Cold Mountain Fire. This research was the only thing I had to fill my time.

So, I filled my time with studying the sect's factions and elders, and when it was time for the outer sect preliminaries, I chose one of the two unaffiliated deacons at random. When I arrived at their testing site, I was tasked with creating Qi Purifying Pills for people who cultivated earth qi.

I didn't hold back. I swiftly created a Perfect pill and turned it in. It wouldn't be appraised until later, so I had an entire night before I found out the results of the competition. I wasn't nearly as worried about the results of this exam as I had been my first time through this. There were two possible outcomes, and I had a fairly good idea of which one would occur.

The next morning, I woke up and learned the results of the preliminaries. As expected, I had failed. I would not be allowed to proceed to the final competition.