The Undying Immortal System

Over the course of a few days, the limits of the changes that I had wrought became evident.

Destroying the outer ring of the formation in Dragon Gate City had not completely abolished the restriction on Lords entering the Wastes. As I had hoped, it only allowed Lords to exist within a wide circle surrounding the city. This circle extended roughly two thirds of the way to the other four formations in the north, south, east, and west.

Additionally, when I went back down to the cavern underneath the Su Clan, I found that a shield had appeared that prevented us from damaging the formation further. While I didn’t have a deep enough grasp of the formation’s inner rings to understand how this shield functioned, I had a pretty good idea of what we needed to do to get rid of it.

Once we fully understood the situation, ShouLi called a meeting of the core elders to discuss how we should proceed.

The nine elders met in the pavilion where they had previously hosted HongYi, TaiZu, and the rest of the Su Clan’s elders. This time, though, their three tables were arranged into a loose triangle.

ShouLi lifted her head and talked to the ceiling. “Ancestor, can you tell us any more about what you have learned?”

With a twitch of my thoughts, I sent her a letter which I had prepared in advance.

To allow Martial Kings to enter Dragon Gate City, we will need to destroy the second ring of the formation. To do that, we will first need to remove the shield protecting it. And to do that, we will need to destroy the outer rings of the other four formations.

However, this will completely remove the restriction barring Lords from entering the Wastes. We will need to be prepared for that.

ShouLi nodded.

To her left, NiangBa chuckled. “That shouldn’t be a problem. If it’s only a few Lords, we can handle it.”

Mo shook his head. “No. It won’t be ‘a few.’ Remember what happened back on Mount Jiang? If the Sovereigns get involved, we will be facing an entire army of well-trained Lords equipped with high-Rank items. Worse, our best warriors are all Kings and Emperors. They won’t be able to enter the Wastes to help.”

NiangBa grunted unhappily but bowed his head to concede the point.

ShouLi glanced at him then addressed the room. “We might not be able to stand against the full force of multiple empires, not yet, but as long as we prepare properly, I am confident that we can succeed.”

I sent the group another note.

I know you are all looking forward to the day when you will be able to return to the outside world, but we can’t rush this. The formation is protecting us. It will allow us to develop one step at a time without needing to worry too much about outside interference. From what I can tell… that is exactly what it was designed to do.

Even once the shield is down, we won’t be able to break the second ring of the formation immediately. Breaking it will almost certainly require a Peak Rank 4 body cultivator. To break the third ring and allow Emperors into the Wastes, we will need Peak Rank 5 body cultivators.

This whole setup is too deliberate. Someone had to have designed it to give a clan of body cultivators a place to develop where they wouldn’t have to worry about the interference of others.

After reading this note, Liang voiced the question on everyone’s mind. “Who?”

Before I could write a response, Mo answered for me. “The Nine Rivers Saint. It has to be. This large of a grand formation, one that contains multiple Rank 7 nodes…”

I hastily scrawled out a response.

I agree. While I can’t say I understand the limits of a Sovereign’s abilities, they are only one step above an Emperor. This formation feels like it would require more than that. However, the formation is old, practically ancient. It was likely constructed by one of the Saint’s predecessors. We can’t be sure the current Saint is even aware of it.

ShouLi tapped her fingers. “Possibly not, but we have to proceed on the assumption that he is. We need to work under the assumption that both the Saint and the local Sovereigns are aware of this formation and that they know what breaking one of the rings represents.”

ShouLi closed her eyes for a moment to center herself. When she opened them, they were filled with conviction.

“What happened at Mount Jiang will not happen again. Even if the Sovereigns know everything that we’ve done, even if they want to move against us, there is nothing they can do about it. We are the only group with Lords in the Wastes, and until we break more of the formations, there is nothing they can do to change that.”

ShouLi looked at GuiAi. “We need to turn Dragon Gate City into a proper kingdom. In the area that was just opened up, we need to construct at least 9 more cities large enough to generate karmic energy.”

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GuiAi grimaced. “That… will be a tight squeeze, but with high-density housing, we can make it happen. The problem is going to be people. Even if you gather up everyone in the Wastes, you still might not have enough people for a true kingdom.”

ShouLi nodded. “Any ideas?”

Chong, who had been sitting next to Mo, snorted. “Pay people to start having babies. Give them enough money, and you’ll have enough babies to fill an empire in only a few decades. Just make sure you can take care of them after they’re born.”

Hesitantly, ShouLi nodded. “GuiAi, get working on the housing. Mo, start looking into what we will need to do to feed an empire. Once everything is in place… we can put a bounty on having babies.”

ShouLi took a breath to refocus. “We’ll first transform the area around Dragon Gate into a unified kingdom with 10 cities. Then, we’ll establish similar pseudo-kingdoms around Rosehill, Mount Jiang, and the sects. Only then will we look at breaking the formations to allow for further advancements. Until then, we will rely on Dragon Gate to bring people up to Peak Lord.”

While I had planned on taking things slow and keeping our development hidden for as long as possible, ShouLi was the exact opposite. She immediately took action and began transforming the Wastes in ways that would have only made sense if we were able to gather karmic energy.

I was a bit worried about this, but ShouLi and the leadership council had been in charge of the clan for decades. They understood the situation, and I wasn’t going to hold them back from doing what they felt they needed to do.

Emperor Li had already confirmed, via RuLan, that he and the other Sovereigns could not make portals into the Wastes. They had no way of inserting any Lords into our midst. So, while there was danger in being too obvious with our actions, it was unlikely that anyone on the continent would be able to punish us for them.

With the help of a sufficient number of Rank 3 and 4 earth, wood, and metal cultivators. GuiAi was able to create the bones of a city capable of housing over a hundred thousand people in only a few weeks. Located to the west of Dragon Gate City, this new city was roughly based on the layout of TongBei and was given the name TongXu.

While GuiAi’s teams focused on construction, GuiMing had teams of earth and water cultivators reshape the terrain of the Wastes to provide these new cities with water.

Mo, meanwhile, was busy designing multi-layered greenhouses to feed everyone. The Wastes actually had enough land that we would have been able to grow enough food without such greenhouses, but Mo didn’t want to waste it on mortal crops. Natural land would be used to grow herbs. Mortal foodstuffs could be relegated to cramped greenhouses.

While my clan was busy transforming the tranquil countryside of the Wastes into a sprawling urban environment, I returned to my study of cultivation.

Over the next few years, I perfected my Rank 3 cultivation technique, used it to break through to Grandmaster, and then advanced to the peak of that realm.

During this time, I kept track of important events, but I didn’t pay them much mind. As long as no major incidents occurred, I was content to sit back and let ShouLi and the others take care of things.

When I finally did step out to really look around at everything they had done, I was astonished.

Originally, Dragon Gate City had been a sprawling mass of two- and three-story houses. These had mostly been replaced with eight- to ten-story high-rises. This allowed the population to condense down into a much smaller space so that we could fit more cities into the area available to us.

As for those new cities, a total of five had been completed, and each one was already generating karmic energy.

To any outsiders who were keeping track of our actions, this would have been conspicuous enough. The fact that the official city lord of Dragon Gate City had changed three times in less than a decade would have only served to confirm their suspicions. It had to be clear to everyone that we had found a way to generate karmic energy in the Wastes.

Once my survey was complete, I turned my attention inward to discuss the situation with ShouLi.

“Ancestor, the powers outside the Wastes have yet to make a move. They haven’t even tried to contact us yet. I am betting that this is because they tried to send their own Lords into the Wastes and failed. With only Grandmasters behind them, they aren’t willing to confront us. Not yet.”

What about resistance from inside the Wastes?

ShouLi sighed. “It’s been… nonstop. We have taken over all the territory around Dragon Gate City, and the petty nobles here aren’t too happy about it. They can’t actually do anything to stop us, but they have been annoying flies that I am about ready to squash.”

What have they said? Have they sent you any demands?

She chuckled wryly. “Of course. They want cities of their own. They want the chance to advance to Lord as well.”

I tapped on my leg in thought a bit before responding.

That might be something worth considering. Not now—we need complete control over Dragon Gate—but if we want to turn the Wastes into a proper empire, we will need a total of 10 kingdoms, right? We might need to give a few of those to outsiders, and we will definitely need to give some of the cities to outsiders.

ShouLi wrinkled her brow. “But… why?”

Karmic energy. There needs to be a path of advancement open to everyone, not just the members of our clan. However… that doesn’t mean those cities and kingdoms should go to the existing noble clans. Start working on ideas for competitions where anyone, even random commoners, can earn a decade or two as a king.

ShouLi nodded. “I understand. I will bring this issue up at the next council meeting.”

How long before we will be ready to break the next formation?

“Depending on how things go… 9 years. That will give us enough time to finish building up the area around Dragon Gate and begin establishing cities around Rosehill. After lengthy discussions, we decided it would be best to break the outer four formations one at a time, and Rosehill seemed like the best option since it faces the west, away from the three great powers surrounding us.”

Isn’t that a bit dangerous? It will open us up to attacks.

ShouLi sighed. “We’re already working on fortifying the western edge of Dragon Gate as much as possible. We need to see what changes will happen when the second barrier drops before we can do much more.”

Alright, I’ll trust your judgement.

I felt like the council was rushing a bit, but it was understandable. They had been trapped in my inner world for over a decade, and they no doubt wanted out as soon as possible.

In any case, while rushing here might be dangerous, the danger was, ultimately, limited. We could let things play out and see where they went. In the worst case, it would just be a learning experience.