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Once this map was as complete as I could make it, I stood and stretched.

That long training session had reminded me of the horrendous shape my body was in at the start of these timelines. Recently, these problems had been masked by early cultivation and several months of good living, but this time, I was forced into an intense workout without any cultivation base to speak of. After only a few hours, I was severely exhausted and was about ready to collapse.

Long ago, I used a Rank 1 Healing Pill purchased from the System to fix most of my acute health problems. The first time I shifted my permanent reset point, I had locked in the effects of this pill, so I didn’t have to worry about any major health problems. However, I was still suffering from the chronic effects of long-term malnutrition.

Reaching into my storage space, I pulled out a small seed pod and used it to concoct a Rank 0 Nutrition Pill. After taking it, I felt a soothing energy flow throughout my body as small aches and pains were washed away.

With my immediate health concerns taken care of, I turned my attention back to refining.

I didn’t like the idea of destroying my cultivation base every week, so I chose to go ahead and cultivate the terrible Low-Yellow Earth Heart Mantra like I was supposed to. While metal qi was considered ideal for a refiner, I didn’t see any reason why earth qi shouldn’t work just as well. After all, while fire qi tended to work best for alchemy, the other types of qi were still usable, and depending on the toxins present, were sometimes superior. I would just need to do my best to limit the amount of impurities I absorbed from cultivating such an awful technique.

After breaking through to Martial Disciple 2 by opening an acupoint in my right fist, I returned to my refining practice.

Moments later, I noticed something strange while manipulating the crystalline grain structures within a copper bar. With metal qi, I had been able to manipulate such crystals rather freely. However, with earth qi, growing a crystalline matrix was easy, but shrinking it was nearly impossible.

After a bit of consideration, a possible explanation for this behavior occurred to me. To test my theory, I used a Qi Gathering Pill to quickly break through to Martial Disciple 3 as fast as I could using a Peak-Yellow fire qi cultivation technique. After opening an acupoint on my left, I then tried using my new fire qi to refine the same copper bar. This time, I found that destroying its crystalline matrix was extremely easy, but growing it was incredibly difficult.

This confirmed my suspicion. It was all a matter of the ‘wuxing,’ the map of creative and destructive interactions between elements. Earth produced metal. Fire destroyed metal. In context, this meant that while metal qi could manipulate metals freely, growing or shirking crystalline grains with equal ease, earth qi only wanted to grow them, and fire qi only wanted to destroy them.

Next, I constructed a small Qi Gathering Formation, and using pills, I broke through to Martial Disciple 5 as quickly as I could. In my upper right arm, I cultivated wood qi, and in my upper left arm, I cultivated water qi. A bit of testing showed that, like with metal qi, these energies could be used to both grow and shrink the grains of a metal, but doing so was far less efficient than using metal qi.

After noting down my findings in my journal, I took an Energy Expulsion Pill and dispersed my somewhat twisted and malformed cultivation base.

Then, I focused inward and broke through using the Earth Heart Mantra on my right fist once more. Earth qi might not be ideal for use in refining, but it worked. Exerting myself by using earth qi in a manner contrary to its nature could even be good practice.

Nearly an entire week had passed during my various phases of cultivation and refining experimentation, and it was quickly time for another martial arts lesson.

This second ‘lesson’ went a bit better than the first. The instructor didn’t try to target me, and I was able to study the other new Disciples in peace.

What I saw was concerning, but not overly surprising. Most everyone’s bodies were slowly being consumed by impure energy. They were all advancing slowly and trying to form the best qi filters they could, but with a nine-star affinity, a Low-Yellow cultivation technique, and no guidance, none of them had much hope. At best, they could slow their advancement enough that the mental effects of their techniques didn’t completely control them.

Watching this group stumble around the training field also gave me a clearer understanding of the task I had set for myself. The Su Clan was a Grandmaster-level force, and its scale was already far beyond anything I would be able to manage on my own. Growing it into a Sovereign-level force would mean increasing its scale and complexity beyond nearly anything I could imagine.

A clan capable of allowing me to advance to Sovereign and beyond would need to rival the scope and scale of the Nine Rivers Sect, and even though I had lived in that sect for a century, I still barely understood how it operated.

In short, this wasn’t a project that could be rushed. I needed to build a clan from the ground up, and I would have to do more than a little experimentation to figure out exactly how it needed to be structured. While I could take inspiration from existing sects and clans, my future time-hopping, storage-space-inhabiting, Sovereign-level clan would be a unique existence in this world, and it would likely need an equally unique organizational framework.

With this in mind, I paid close attention to everyone during the martial training session and tried to find someone worth investing in, but our interactions were too limited. I was able to learn a little about how they reacted when forced into combat under the threat of death, but not much else. In sum, no one stuck out as any more worthy of recruitment than anyone else.

When the second lesson was over, I noticed the instructor glance at me. His gaze seemed both vengeful and uncommonly happy.

During the following week, I spent some time exercising outside in the hope of running into a few of my fellow Disciples, but everyone stayed locked away inside their houses, cultivating feverishly. I could understand this compulsion, but unfortunately, it didn’t help me get to know them any better.

Before the third lesson began, I allowed myself to advance to Martial Disciple 3, and by the end of the month, I had reached Disciple 4. This placed me squarely in the crosshairs of the instructor, but I no longer cared what he thought about me. I could have tried to avoid the inevitable fight at the end of the month by limiting my advancement, but my ability to do so had been questionable ever since I had dodged the instructor’s attack during our first lesson.

At any rate, I wasn’t gaining much intel by being locked up in my house. Instead, I was now just aiming to redeem my past self and see what would happen if I defeated one of the Su Clan’s elite trainees.

At the end of the first month, all the new Disciples were led out of our residential courtyard and guided to the depths of the training complex.

The high red walls surrounding us made me wonder what was located on the other side, so since no one was paying much attention to me, I took out my journal and worked on drawing a map of the complex as we made our way through it. This map was a bit crude, and all I was able to draw were a few streets marked with several doors, but it was a start.

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Eventually, we were led to a large open area with a raised fighting platform in its center. To my left, a group of five middle-aged men sat on a balcony. I only recognized one of them, Su YuanFei. A quick check showed that they were all Martial Grandmasters, with YuanFei the highest at Grandmaster 7.

To our right, opposite the elders, a long platform at the same level as the fighting arena held ten somewhat cheap-looking thrones. The boys and girls sitting there were all clean and wore well-tailored robes. While they were all well-dressed, Su ShouDu, who was sitting at the far end of this platform, was unrivaled in the sheer gaudiness of his outfit. His bright red robe and small golden crown made him look like a tiny emperor.

Our martial arts instructor stepped toward the arena and bowed to the elder waiting there. Then he straightened and moved to the side, allowing the elder to take charge.

“Welcome everyone. I am Su HuaTian, Eighth Elder of the Su clan. Today, you are here to bear witness to the ten most elite and honorable new Disciples of our clan. They have each been blessed with powers and abilities far beyond their peers. They are the best of you, and they will be the proud representatives of the Su Clan in the future. Bow and pay your respects.”

I wanted to laugh, but I followed along with everyone else and bowed to the ten elites.

Once we rose, the elder continued his speech.

“Of course, the Su Clan accepts only the best of the best as its elite. These ten have been specially chosen based on the combined knowledge and experience of the clan’s esteemed elders. However, if you believe that you are superior to one of these hand-picked elites, you may challenge them to prove yourself more worthy of their position. This is your first such opportunity. After today, you will only have two more chances.”

I looked at the ten children on their thrones. In the past, I had been driven by cultivation madness to think that defeating them would be easy. This time, my mind was clear, and I could think rationally. I was absolutely confident I could crush any one of them.

Still, I didn’t step forward. I allowed the situation to unfold naturally.

The elder in charge of the competition stood before us. “Does anyone wish to challenge?”

No one made a move.

Our instructor gave me a vicious look. I gave a slight shake of the head. He squinted his eyes.

Su HuaTian looked at our instructor. “Deacon Xu?”

“Sir, I believe there is one disciple who should be given an opportunity to fight. It would be a good lesson for everyone.”

“Oh? Who is that?”

“Su Fang.” He looked right at me. “Step forward and give us all a demonstration.”

I had to thank the elder for reminding me of the deacon’s name.

I smiled and bowed. “Very well, Master Xu.”

As I walked forward, I quickly assessed the elites. There were six boys and four girls. Each of them was only at Martial Disciple 2. Their foundations were far better than the young men and women from my residential area, but none of them were overly impressive.

Studying them more closely, I got a sense of why that was. The Su Clan trained their Disciples to cultivate slowly to make their cultivation bases as perfect as possible. However, a fresh new cultivator would still make countless mistakes and pollute their bodies with impure qi. The Su Clan accepted this and just tried to minimize the damage.

During my time at the Yellow Orchid Academy, I had seen how the real elites of the continent were trained. We had practiced cultivation techniques as much as possible, and our instructors didn’t care about how many impurities entered our bodies. We just needed to learn to cultivate better. Then, once we had mastered the basics, we purged our bodies of impurities and forged a pristine foundation from scratch.

By comparison to even the weakest students in the Academy, the Su Clan elites looked a bit trashy.

As I was arriving on the stage, I had to decide who to fight.

After scanning all my potential opponents, my eyes locked onto a target that made me want to chuckle.

I pointed to the eighth disciple from the left. The one who had killed me several times during this exact same competition.

“I’ll challenge him.”

A smug look appeared on the boy’s face. He was excited for the chance to put me in my place.

As he walked onto the arena’s stage, I just gave him an affable smile.

Once we both were in position, the elder looked between us.

“This will be a fight to submission. Your goal is not to kill one another. However, fists have no eyes. In challenge fights, maiming and death are possible. Do you both understand?”

We responded simultaneously. “Yes, elder.”

“Good, bow to your opponent.”

I gave my opponent as genuine of a bow as I could muster.

The elder didn’t even allow me to straighten before beginning the competition.

“Fight!”

I had somewhat expected my opponent to charge at me, but we both just stood there. So, taking the initiative, I charged at him instead.

As I did, I watched as he cycled the qi in his arm.

The boy was only a Martial Disciple 2, meaning he had only opened a single acupoint in his upper right arm, but he had also cultivated his right fist to its limit.

He shifted the qi in his upper arm to enhance its speed and shifted the qi in his fist to his knuckles, giving him the power to deliver a devastating blow.

As I approached, I maintained my qi in its relaxed position, allowing it to boost my strength, speed, and defense equally.

When I was within range of the boy, he struck like a viper, using the enhanced speed of his boosted muscles to take me by surprise.

As soon as he made his move, I shifted my qi with pinpoint precision.

I knocked his blow aside with my right hand and delivered a devastating backhand with my left.

This sent him sprawling backward.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the men on the balcony jump up from his seat and glare down at me.

I backed off and allowed the boy to stand and regain his composure. However, his anger got the better of him and he started shouting.

“Do you know who I am!? I am the personal disciple of Grandmaster Su YuanKong! How dare you hit me! How dare you hit an elite disciple!”

With that, he charged me like a bull. I stepped to the side and delivered a hard kick to his backside, sending him sprawling to the ground once more.

“YOU DARE!?”

This time, the shout didn’t come from the boy, it came from the balcony.

The man who had jumped to his feet earlier was now completely enraged. Using a bit of qi, he launched himself from the balcony and landed between me and my opponent.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!? First, you openly question my, Su YuanKong’s, judgment by challenging my disciple. Do you think I am incapable of knowing who is and is not deserving of the status of an elite!? I am the son of the patriarch! You dare question me?”

He took a single menacing step toward me.

“Then, you openly attack my disciple, slapping both him and me in the face!”

He took one more step.

“THEN, not only did you not kneel down and beg for forgiveness, you attacked him AGAIN! From the crime of treason against the clan, I sentence you to death!”

The Grandmaster was only a few steps away at this point.

He sent a wave of earth qi hurtling toward me. If it hit me, I would be severely injured, but I wouldn’t be dead. From the look of anger on this man’s face, I could tell that he wanted me to suffer.

Quickly thinking through my options, I decided to play this out a little bit longer and see where it went.

I grabbed the man’s qi with my earth affinity and ripped it away from his control. Then, I whipped it around my body and flung it right back at him as a compacted fist of force.

Against a more skilled opponent, this wouldn’t have worked. My ability to take control of his energy so easily relied not only on my significantly higher earth affinity but also on the fact that my opponent had sent out this energy recklessly. He wasn’t even trying to control it. He was just trying to overwhelm me with it.

A tightly compacted fist of earth qi slammed into the man’s chest, snapping his ribs and severely damaging his internal organs.

Only a moment ago, the elders on the balcony had been sitting by patiently and mocking their companion for interfering in the competition, but seeing the patriarch’s son lying broken on the arena floor, they could no longer sit back and laugh. They had to intervene.

I had thought that a show of strength might make them want to recruit me into the upper echelons of the clan, but severely injuring one of their number had turned all of the elders against me. In their eyes, I was no longer a Disciple who had just won a fight I shouldn’t have. I was an assassin.

There might have been a way to better thread this needle. There might have been an elite I could have challenged that wouldn’t have upset anyone. I might have been able to defeat my opponent in such a way that I didn’t turn everyone against me. I might have been able to fight the battle to a draw, or I might have been able to find a way to lose graciously.

The thing was, I didn’t care about any of that. I wasn’t here to play their games. What would be the point of being a good little disciple? I was here to evaluate and judge the members of this clan to see who would be worth recruiting. Every single person who had been on that balcony had just failed this assessment.

With a team of Grandmasters moving to attack me, I was at a severe disadvantage. My affinities might let me counter a reckless attack, but I didn’t have any hope of fighting back against even a single high-level cultivator in a serious fight.

In any case, I no longer cared. I had learned all I was going to learn from this timeline. I was ready to move on.

I pulled a poison pill from my storage space and swallowed it.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Disciple 4 – 40 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 754,956,558,600

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