Once the vast majority of people were out of my inner world and back where they had come from, I was finally ready to figure out what the hell had just happened. While there were plenty of people that I could have asked, I fell back into my old pattern of centuries and called on ShouLi.
After sending her a quick signal, I pulled her out of the world and into my sitting room atop the Summit.
“ShouLi, what happened in there?”
She raised a hand to rub her forehead. “Well… Chang’an was… attacked? Invaded? All of the plants just started growing like crazy and attacking people. Trees sprang out of the ground and thrashed people with their branches. Vines appeared out of nowhere and lashed people. Flowers blossomed in hidden alcoves and filled the air with toxic spores. Destroying them was easy enough, but they produced seeds, and those seeds quickly grew into new enemies. It was a mess.”
How had this happened? Wasn’t my world supposed to be protected from outside interference? When I had purchased my storage space from the System, I paid for it to be outside the control of the Heavenly and Earthly Daos. Was this ‘invasion’ the work of an even more powerful entity? Why?
ShouLi let out a weary sigh. “It wasn’t all bad. Having so many plants around ensured that no one went hungry. Also, while the plants did attack us, even Disciples were able to take care of the majority of them. The most powerful was only at the level of a Martial Master.”
“I… see. Thank you. Sorry about… everything.”
She smiled and waved this away. “No need. It was… fun.”
Before making any decisions about how to proceed, I needed more information.
“System, a trillion credits. Tell me what you can about the invasion.”
Purchase confirmed. 1,229,314,660,747 credits remaining
Host’s Rank 1 Small World ascended to Rank 2. Due to the manner in which this Rank was achieved, to verify it, the Small World was subjected to a Tribulation of Wood. As more than 10% of the world’s sapient population survived, the advancement of Host’s Small World was deemed a success.
As a boon from surviving, all inhabitants received a boost to their wood affinity.
After laying everything out and making the proper arrangements, I returned to my work with formations, but… only one year later…
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
On one of the upper floors of Chang’an’s central tower, a withered old man was lying in bed while a beautiful young woman was sitting in a chair next to him, holding his hand. A group of a dozen men and women of all ages surrounded them.
“System, I need to purchase a new technique. Give me a soul avatar skill that will let me create a visible body.”
Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 trillion credits. 229,314,660,747 credits remaining
Reading through the technique, I quickly grasped what I needed to do to make my avatar visible. And after only a few minutes of practice, I was able to create a decent facsimile of my body.
Refocusing on the old man, I manipulated my soul and created an avatar next to his bedside. I gave him my best grandfatherly smile. “Hello, Liang. How are you holding up?”
He slowly turned his head to face me and let out a soft snort filled with a range of complex emotions. “I always said you were a bastard. Look at you now, interrupting my final moments with my family.”
While Liang’s words were harsh, they weren’t filled with anger or bitterness, just nostalgia. He wasn’t complaining because he was annoyed. He was complaining because he liked to complain.
“Hao, get over here and greet the Ancestor!” Liang snapped at a young man off to the side of the assembly who promptly rushed forward and gave a salute. “Hao, this bastard is Ancestor Fang. Treat him with whatever respect he deserves. Once you’re the Head of the Council, do your best to assist him. He’s more than a little absentminded, but he tries… sometimes.”
Hao bowed once to Liang. “Yes, Grandfather.” Then, he saluted and bowed to me. “Greetings, Ancestor.”
I gave him a nod of my head in return.
Liang grunted and waved this exchange away. “I don’t know how little Yang lost the seat to GuiMing’s brat, but don’t you worry. I’m confident that Hao will do us proud.”
Liang’s eyes drifted to the ceiling as ShouLi patted his arm in comfort.
With an exertion of will, I made two memory orbs appear, one in each of Liang’s hands.
“Liang, this might…” I let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know what the future holds. Not for me, and not for you. So… two orbs. In one, you can store a legacy. You can record any skills or memories that you wish to be preserved and passed down to future generations. If you have any requirements for who should receive this legacy, let me know. As for the second orb… I want to be prepared, just in case. Store everything. Everything you know and believe. All your memories. This way, if we see each other again, I can return them to you.”
For a moment, it looked like Liang might toss the orbs away, but after a glance at ShouLi, he puffed out a breath of stale air, leaned back in his bed, and did as I requested.
After retrieving these orbs, I only stuck around a few minutes longer. I could feel that I was out of place. I was intruding on a private moment.
On the north side of Chang’an, a mausoleum had been built to honor the members of my clan’s first generation. All of those who had only been able to ascend to Lord or King had already passed. Now, with Liang, the first Emperor had fallen. Due to the injuries he had sustained in the fight against Li NeiTang, this had come a bit earlier than it should have, but even without those injuries, it had been inevitable.
After the funeral service, once everyone had departed, I placed Liang’s Legacy Orb on his tombstone and constructed a formation around it. Liang’s request had been simple: anyone with sufficient determination should be able to access his legacy. I did my best to honor this.
The next day, I met with ShouLi. While she had recently started to show signs of aging, she still looked to be no older than 35 or 40.
“ShouLi, I want… I want to honor certain families, certain lineages. You and Liang… I want the two of you to be the forebearers of the clan’s first named branch. Instead of ‘Su,’ your descendants should bear the name Sushou, Suli, or Suliang.”
ShouLi bowed a weary head. “Suliang. He would hate it. He would want it to be named after me. But… Suliang.”
Only a few years later, the original members of my clan turned 600 years old. I had held out hope that body cultivation or vital energy might change things, but no.
First, Mo passed away. Then, on the same day, GuiMing and GuiAi died. Then… ShouLi. One year later, it was NiangBa’s turn. I had each person record both their memories and their legacy, but that was all I could do. The Laws that demanded their deaths were beyond my control.
Less than a year after NiangBa passed, I stood beside yet another deathbed. This time, it was RuLan’s.
With Mo having already departed, he wasn’t there to see her on her way. Instead, the elderly man at RuLan’s bedside was their first son, QiQiang. Looking at him, it was clear that his time would soon be coming to an end as well. Knowing this, I couldn’t stop the tears that rolled down my cheeks.
Unlike the others, RuLan had placed an empty chair on the left side of her bed, opposite her son. When she saw me, she patted it. “Please, Senior Brother, sit with me.”
Silently, I did as requested.
RuLan tried to place a hand on my shoulder, but it slipped through my incorporeal form, so she could only pull it back with a sigh. “Senior Brother… Ancestor… Thank you. The others might not have been able to say it, but we all know. We all know what would have happened if you hadn’t saved us. We all recognize how much you changed things. So, thank you.”
I just lowered my head, not knowing how to respond.
RuLan’s gaze drifted to the ceiling. “I just wonder… Did we make a mistake? Did we do something wrong?”
“What…”
“I never got to see Master again. I spent too much time in the Wastes. By the time we left, he was…” A tear trickled from RuLan’s eye. “Do you remember the last words that Master said to me? These past few years, they kept running through my mind. ‘Don’t cry, girl. We’ll see each other again. Though, at that time, I might be the one saying goodbye to you. Spend these years well. Live them without regret.’ I’ve done my best to follow his instructions, but we never did see each other again.”
These words lit a spark of hope within me, but I did my best not to show it. While Emperor Li’s blessing did not let him see the future, I had to believe that he wouldn’t have said these words if they didn’t have a deeper meaning. A future meeting between RuLan and Li had to be possible.
However, even if such a possibility existed, it was something for the distant future. It did not change the present.
RuLan looked to QiQiang, who handed her Emperor Li’s token. She tried to pass it to me, but it just slipped through my fingers. Then, exhausted, she lay back and fell asleep.
Only a few days after my visit, RuLan left to follow Mo and the others on their final journey.
After her death, our clan welcomed the birth of three new branch families. Sugui, Suba, and Sulan. In the years to come, more than anything else, this would remind me of those who had helped me lay the foundation for our clan’s future prosperity.
Over the next several decades, I became more closed off. The only person that I spent much time around was Shen.
The two of us had learned a lot over the years and had perfected both the large-scale Rank 7 Multi-Anti-Soul Lamp Formation and the large-scale Anti-Portal Formation. We had even started investigating a few other formation designs. However, before we were able to complete any of them, we ran out of time.
Not long after I turned 437 years old, the portal to the Central Continent opened, and a young man in silver robes stepped out. As soon as I was informed of this, I rushed to meet him.
“Greetings, Emissary Fang. I am Envoy Ling. You have been permitted to witness the Ascension of the Nine Rivers Saint. If you are willing to swear the proper Oath, then you may follow me to the Central Continent to do so.”
This ‘Envoy Ling’ spoke with a pleasant smile on his face, but for some reason, I didn’t quite trust it. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t get a good read on him.
“Thank you, Envoy Ling. May I have some time to consider this?”
The Envoy’s lip twitched. In amusement? In disdain? I wasn’t sure. “No. I am unable to remain here any longer than necessary. However, a word of advice. After the current Saint departs, the new Saint may not appreciate those who are not present at the time of his ascension.”
I cupped my fists and bowed. “I understand. However, I am truly unable to leave. Please, send the Saint, both Saints, my regards.”
A flash of something appeared in the Envoy’s eyes. “Very well.”
Then, he turned and departed.
I immediately sent a signal to everyone in my clan’s leadership. We need to get gone. Thankfully, in recent years, the radius of Chang’an had expanded from 1.5 kilometers to over 2 kilometers. With stacked, layered bunkers, we had plenty of room to temporarily house everyone who wanted to go.
Rushing around the continent, I created a series of portals that connected the various bunkers within Chang’an to the different places where people had settled down. Aside from gathering up millions of people from the Su Clan, I also grabbed a large number of people from the families of my Revered Elders and several hundred thousand people from the Ning, Zhuge, Li, Jiu, and Du Clans.
While Du XiongMing had joined the Ning Clan in this life, he had always wanted to ascend to Sovereign with his own, so I would give him that opportunity. As for the Jiu Clan, while I didn’t have any desire to keep it around, it was a necessary precondition for Grand Elder Zheng BoQin’s support. And if we had to have a Jiu Clan, it might as well be one that I had control over.
I had only given the clans three days to get this all done, but that had been plenty. We had known that this day was coming, and the people who wanted to leave had been waiting for the signal for months.
After the last portal to my inner world closed, I couldn’t help but jump back to the Summit and take a look at the arch that led to the Central Continent. Part of me wanted to see what was on the other side. However, doing so would have been far too dangerous. Any number of instant death traps might have been waiting for me, and it was possible that some of them might even target my soul.
So, after one last look, I let out a sigh of regret and swallowed a specially made wood-based poison pill that had no difficulty in dealing with my earth-based body cultivation.
You have died. Calculating…
You died as a Martial Sovereign Peak – 100 trillion credits awarded.
You died at Peak Rank 6 of Body Cultivation – 1 trillion credits awarded.
Total Credits: 101,229,314,660,747
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Perfect Transcription – Rank 6
Touch Reading – Rank 6
Scribe – Rank 3
Comprehension Boosts
Cultivation:
Cultivation Techniques – 100 billion credits
Body Cultivation – 100 billion credits
Soul Techniques – 100 billion credits
Energy Control – 100 billion credits
Teaching – 100 million credits
Professions:
Alchemy – 100 billion credits
Formations – 5 trillion credits
Herbalism – 10 billion credits
Refining – 100 billion credits
Martial – 1 billion credits
Social:
Reading Emotions (True) – 25,000,000 credits
Skills
Mastery of Cold Mountain Fire, Expanding Realms Fire
Memory Implantation – Rank 1
Talisman Artistry – Rank 4 (Continent-Wide Expert)
Soul Formation Concealment – Rank 6
Enhanced Soul Growth – 20,000 credits
Pill, Formation, Herb, Talisman, Demon Beast, Refined Item, Illusion, and Gu Appraisal – Rank 3 (Comprehensive, Detailed)
Technique Appraisal – Rank 5 (Earth)
Fire Seed Appraisal – Profound
Language (Western Han)