The Undying Immortal System

The guard led me out of the residential area and into a side courtyard with the same gray brick paving stones and red walls. It contained only a single building which had an administrative air to it.

It was a wooden building that had been painted a bright red. The building sat half a meter above the ground upon a thick marble foundation. Red columns were spaced all along its perimeter to help hold up a two-tiered yellow ceramic tiled roof. Complex designs were painted in gold on the red walls, and intricate multicolored patterns adorned the eaves and the brackets that ran between the columns.

I was guided up the marble steps and into the building. Inside, I found a rather spacious front room.

The middle-aged shouty man from the previous ceremony, Su YuanFei, sat at the back of the room to oversee the proceedings. In the middle of the room was an orb that looked like it was made of perfectly transparent glass resting on a pedestal. To the right, a scribe sat at a table taking notes. Finally, behind the orb was an elderly man I had not seen before.

I wasn't sure about the proper etiquette for this situation, so I gave the elderly man a slight bow and approached. I decided not to speak since, as the locals had recently taught me, speaking out of turn could be deadly. If they decided I acted rudely, I would have to die and try again.

Fortunately, it didn't come to that. When I neared, the elderly man spoke.

"What is your name?"

"Su Fang."

I heard the scribe writing this down.

"Place your hand on the orb and channel your qi into it."

Not sure exactly what that meant, I did my best. I placed my hand on the orb and tried to will something into it. Nothing happened. After a few moments, the man spoke again.

"Concentrate on your dantian in the core of your body. Pull from there and push into the orb."

I did as he said. I didn't feel much, but I could feel something. A faint trickle of energy flowed out of me and into the orb. As it did, the orb began to sputter weakly with a faint glow of a mix of random colors.

"Zero affinity." The elderly man's tone was neutral. My result didn't seem to bother him. "What can you tell us about the blessing you have received?"

Having thought about this question, I decided to say something to try and make them think that there would be more to come. Something had to be better than nothing.

"My entire life, my body has been weak and frail. After the blessing, I can feel that there is new strength in it. Old pains have ceased, and I can feel that I am regaining the strength I should have. I believe there may be more to this blessing, but that is all I know right now."

The old man gave me a look, and I could feel energy from him lightly probe my body. After that, he nodded to the scribe.

"He will be given the Earth Heart Mantra and returned to his original quarters."

I wanted to speak up and ask a question, but the servant who had led me in began pulling me away. After a second of surprise, I followed behind. We entered a side room where another scribe was sitting in front of several piles of bamboo scrolls.

"Earth Heart." The servant spoke with a touch of disdain.

The scribe handed over a scroll from the largest pile.

"We will send someone to retrieve this in two weeks. You have that long to learn it. Do not lose or damage this scroll."

I nodded as I was pulled away. The servant took me back to the residential area, but he didn't follow me back to my house. He was already off to grab the next person in line.

Sitting back down in my house, I needed to decide how to proceed.

Being expelled from the clan for not placing in the top sixteen sounded harsh, but it did make some sense. The Su Clan was huge, and I was an orphan from a twig of a branch family. At some point, they would have to start pruning down those who could be considered actual family members. It might not feel fair, but it did make some sense.

The new encounters had shown me new areas where my knowledge was lacking, and as long as I knew about a problem, I could work to solve it. The fact that I had zero affinities seemed like it was going to be something that needed to change.

I didn't know what affinities were or how they would help me, but that testing showed that they were considered important. I only had 1 credit, so there wasn't much I could do. At most, I could use it to fill in a bit of missing knowledge.

"System, I want to purchase knowledge of affinities."

Knowledge of affinities. Cost is not possible to calculate at this time.

"I want to purchase basic knowledge of affinities. Common knowledge of what people believe about them."

Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 credit. 0 credits remaining.

In this world, there are many forms of energy. The most common form of energy is qi. It exists everywhere in the air around you. Similar to light or electricity, qi is a form of pure energy.

There are many different forms of qi. Using light as an analogy, there are many different 'wavelengths' of qi that give it different 'colors.' Examples of this are the five basic elements: fire, water, earth, metal, and wood qi. Other forms of qi may include lightning, demonic, and spirit qi.

Affinities allow a cultivator to control the type of qi that matches their affinity. They can pull that energy into themselves, empowering and strengthening their body. While rarer affinities may offer some benefits, they are generally seen as less useful since their matching qi types may be lacking or insufficient in the environment.

Credits expended. Transaction complete.

I considered the Earth Heart Mantra I was given. It was used to cultivate earth qi. Would cultivating earth qi affect me differently than, say, fire qi? I wanted to ask, but I didn't have any more credits.

Every time I died, I was told I was getting points because I reached Martial Disciple 1. When I asked about gaining more points, I was told that I would get points based on my cultivation level. It sounded like my cultivation level could be improved by using this Earth Heart Mantra to pull in earth qi. If I were to pull in qi and strengthen myself, I would eventually become Martial Disciple 2. That would earn me more credits when I died without running afoul of the System's 'no intentional death' edict. I didn't plan on dying, but I knew it would happen sooner or later, so I needed to make the most of it.

Affinity was a body's ability to control different kinds of qi, and by having zero affinity with everything, I was at the bottom of the bottom. My control of qi barely existed, and I would have a very hard time advancing.

For most people, this would mean the end of the road. However, as the Su Clan was no doubt aware, blessings could change everything. A powerful blessing could easily make up for lacking affinities.

What did this mean for me? It meant I needed to make a plan. I was given an earth qi technique, so I might as well start there since I didn't know enough to pick between the five basic affinities the System had listed. Rarer affinities sounded interesting, but if they were less useful without a proper environment, I would have to hold off on purchasing them until later.

"System, I want to improve my earth qi affinity."

Temporary Low 9-star Earth Affinity. Cost 10 credits.

"Fair enough. System, I would like to improve my earth qi affinity by two steps."

Temporary Mid 9-star Earth Affinity. Cost 35 credits.

I decided to prod a little more to see if I could find out more information.

"System, how much to raise my affinity by three steps?"

Temporary High 9-star Earth Affinity. Cost 85 credits.

"Four steps?"

Temporary Peak 9-star Earth Affinity. Cost 160 credits.

"Five steps?"

Temporary Low 8-star Earth Affinity. Cost 260 credits.

"Nine steps?"

Temporary Low 7-star Earth Affinity. Cost 2,760 credits.

"Thirteen steps?"

Information on affinities. Cost 1,000 credits.

A bit more testing showed that I could ask the System for the cost to raise an affinity up to high seven-star, but if I wanted the prices for anything above that, I needed to pay 1,000 credits for 'information about affinities.' In any case, I had learned what I needed to know for the moment. Affinities started at low nine-star and increased through low, mid, high, and peak. Then, they advanced to low eight-star. Presumably, this would continue to at least peak one-star which may or may not be the highest.

I considered this. Did I need to commit suicide dozens of times to get a usable affinity? I didn't want to do that. Memories of my last death lingered in my mind. Also, I was sure that committing suicide twenty-odd times in a row was exactly what the System had meant when it warned me against 'quick, repeated, intentional deaths.'

So, I needed to find a way to quickly improve my cultivation to improve my credit gain. The key to that had to be these affinities. Improving to low nine-star was cheap. I could afford that with just a single death.

Wait… The prompt had said 'temporary.'

"System, I want to improve my earth qi affinity permanently. I want it to stay improved even after I die and restart."

Permanent Low 9-star Earth Affinity. Cost 100 credits.

There it was. Ten deaths to afford even the worst affinity available.

Processing… An external entity has discounted the price of increasing your affinity. Cost 10 credits.

Note: This discount will only be applied to the first affinity you permanently upgrade. However, any future upgrades to this affinity up to the level of peak nine-star will also be discounted to 10% of their regular price.

An external entity again… that was worrisome, but at least it was helping me out.

So, a discount, but only to the first affinity I chose to make permanent. Did I want to focus on earth qi?

I didn't want to rush this decision. Since this discount only applied up to peak nine-star, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I picked the wrong affinity now and decided to change my focus in the future, but starting off on the right foot was always for the best.

Not that any of this mattered too much at the moment. I didn't have any credits, so this choice would have to wait for the future.

My goals moving forward were simple. Push as far as I could. Learn as much as I could. If there was a risk, take it. Better to learn and die so I was prepared for the future.

I didn't want to die. Even with the resets, I didn't want to die, but I would.

That said, for the near future I wouldn't exactly be doing anything death-defying. I would be sitting on my rear trying to pull in energy while having little to no ability to do so.