The Undying Immortal System-Chapter 303: Life 76, Age 29, Martial Grandmaster Peak

With the Dragon Gate Festival having concluded, the recruiters gathered their retinues and departed the Wastes. They were all, no doubt, rushing back to report on everything they had seen.

However, as these groups left, a few members from each one stayed behind. These stragglers were all low-level Grandmasters, but dressed in the clothes of common workers, they did their best to blend in with the city population.

As we already had scouts set up to monitor these people, they didn’t pose any immediate threat, but ShouLi still requested a meeting with me to discuss the situation.

“Ancestor, while dealing with these few people won’t be a problem, others have used the festival as an excuse to sneak into our territory as well. We can keep an eye on the ones that we know about, but for each spy we’ve identified, there might be two more that we haven’t. We need to do something about this.”

I sighed and jotted down a reply. ShouLi, unless we are willing to cut off all trade with the outside world, having our territory infiltrated with spies and saboteurs is unavoidable. We can’t stop them, but we also shouldn’t worry too much about them. They are only Grandmasters, after all.

ShouLi winced. “That… might not be the case. We’ve done some testing. Anyone who has karmic energy within their bodies is barred from entering the Wastes. If a Grandmaster with karmic energy stored in their dantian tries to force their way inside, the stored energy will be violently expelled, severely injuring them in the process.

“However, once they reach Dragon Gate City, the restrictions on acquiring karmic energy disappear. If they are then assigned as the lord of a distant city, they will be able to accrue energy and ascend within our borders.”

I nodded. I hadn’t thought of this possibility, but I should have. This was similar to how I had first gained karmic energy through the Blue Wind Pavilion. Still…

We need to consider this possibility, but until we destroy more of the formations, anyone who ascends will be trapped here. It’s a suicide mission. It seems unlikely that anyone would be willing to raise more than a handful of Lords in such a way.

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As long as we are prepared, they shouldn’t be able to do much damage. Also, the spies that we know of are only low-level Grandmasters. It will take them time to ascend, and by then, we will be in an even better position to deal with them if they do try to cause any trouble.

A grimace appeared on ShouLi’s face. “So, you are saying that we shouldn’t do anything to stop them? That should just let spies roam about our territory freely?”

I’m saying that we shouldn’t be too impulsive. Killing these people would only create enmity between us and their backers. We could confront the spies we know about, but that might just result in more skilled operatives being sent in their place. Better to keep the spies we know about in place, protect ourselves from them, and feed them false information.

ShouLi appeared unhappy with this suggestion but bowed her head. “I understand, Ancestor.”

Keep track of them, though. The moment someone sends an army to attack us, kill them.

While I had a certain level of confidence in the plan that I had laid out for ShouLi, we still needed to be prepared for the worst-case scenarios.

So, how many Martial Lords could outsiders create within our territory? Combined, the Rising Sun Empire, Verdant Forest Sect, and Flowing Mountain Sect had over 300 cities. If they dedicated themselves to taking us down, they would be able to overwhelm us in only a few short years.

Worse, this was only considering the local powerhouses. If every empire on the continent began sending people into the Wastes, we would soon be overwhelmed by low-level Lords.

While this seemed unlikely, it was something we needed to be prepared for. So, with this in mind, Mo mobilized our craftsmen to shore up our defenses from threats both internal and external.

To provide for our people without needing to rely on imported supplies, our Herbalists worked on enhancing our farms, while our Illusionists provided lights for our multistory greenhouses. Alchemists concocted healing and cultivation pills, while our talisman artists crafted bundles of talismans that people could carry around for use in an emergency. The beast tamers were mostly focused on raising companions capable of fighting against Grandmasters, but they were also raising support animals, like wind horses.

However, the teams that would make the Wastes truly impregnable were the refiners and formation masters.

Within Dragon Gate City, old houses were torn down and replaced with high-density apartment buildings. While many of the residents weren’t exactly happy about this, their happiness wasn’t among our chief concerns. They were given the keys to a brand-new apartment and ample compensation for their inconvenience. If they felt that this wasn’t sufficient, then they were free to move elsewhere. This reduced Dragon Gate’s once sprawling footprint to a much more manageable size.

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Once this initial phase of construction was complete, GuiMing’s teams built a wall around the entire city. From then on, everyone entering was checked for ill intent via a truth stone. To prevent anyone from sneaking in, our formation masters created a series of Rank 4 defensive and detection formations around the city’s perimeter.

Of course, these precautions weren’t enough to stop everyone who might mean us harm. There was always the possibility that someone with a specialized skill set, or someone with a particularly powerful blessing, could sneak through the cracks. These defenses could only keep out the bulk of the invaders. For the rest, we would have to rely on guards equipped with the finest of Rank 3 and 4 refined equipment.

With all of these defenses in place, while a group of saboteurs might be able to harm us, they would have difficulty causing serious damage.

That said, we were still in a difficult position. While there were plenty of people who were willing to do whatever work was available, most of them expected to receive some form of compensation for their efforts.

So, Mo worked with ShouLi to set up a contribution point system. For a few points, people were able to buy low-level pills and formations to help them cultivate. For a moderate price, people were able to enhance their affinities. And for a high price, they could purchase time as a nominal city lord to gather karmic energy.

This worked, for the most part. But with each year that passed, people were becoming more skilled and more capable of generating contribution points. This, in turn, had an inflationary effect on the price of essence, karmic energy, and any resources that needed to be imported from outside the Wastes.

While our herbalists could produce an endless supply of herbs, cotton, and foodstuffs, things like stone and metal were harder to come by. The Wastes had deposits of Rank 1 and 2 minerals that we could mine, but most of our Rank 3 supplies had to be imported. Most of the merchants selling such goods had little interest in contribution points that could only be spent in one small corner of the world. They expected to be paid in gold and spirit stones.

This left us needing three things: essence, karmic energy, and high-level resources.

For the first, I turned to NiangBa, and for the other two, I turned to Mo.

When I looked in my inner world, I found NiangBa in a meeting with his lieutenants. This was exactly the group I needed to talk to, so I immediately dropped them a note, interrupting whatever they were discussing.

I need teams to go out in the world and gather essence. This will be like what we did in the Nine Rivers Sect, but significantly more dangerous. Back then, we had an implicit understanding with the Sovereigns. They knew what we were doing ahead of time, and the amount of essence we harvested was limited.

This time, I plan to use more powerful formations and materials capable of storing far greater quantities of essence. Additionally, with everything we are doing in the Wastes, if anyone is connected back to us, the Sovereigns will likely capture and torture them.

After reading this, NiangBa laughed and looked around at his lieutenants with a smile on his face.

“Well? You were all just complaining about being trapped in here. What do you say? Who’s ready for an adventure?”

The next day, I made my way to the western edge of the Wastes. While the north, east, and south were occupied by empire-level organizations, to the west, there was only a loose association of cities.

Upon my arrival at the border, I scanned the area with both my qi and soul, checking for anyone who might be watching. Once I was confident the coast was clear, I let out the four dozen cultivators who had agreed to harvest essence for me.

NiangBa gave me a martial salute. “Don’t worry, Ancestor. You can count on us.”

Once they departed, I turned my attention back to my inner world and found Mo busy at work in his office.

Mo, the clan needs access to more karmic energy. We also need channels for purchasing and importing large quantities of high-level resources without anyone knowing that we are doing it.

Mo picked up this letter, read it, and stared at it thoughtfully for several long moments.

“The guilds?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

Yes. We need to reestablish the guilds. With members in kingdoms and empires across the continent, the Blue Wind Pavilion is large enough to generate Emperor-level karma. If we can fully establish all seven guilds, we can potentially produce seven empires' worth of karmic energy.

Mo tapped his desk in thought. “That will be difficult. A Guild of Refiners would be targeted by every major power on the continent. Aside from that, while a single emperor-level guild might be tolerated, I doubt the Sovereigns would be happy about seven ‘empires’ being controlled by a single clan.”

I nodded to myself.

Start with the Guild of Alchemists. The southern empires don’t have any Pill Kings, and even Pill Lords are a rare sight. If you start the guild there, the local empires will likely support you.

The other guilds can come later. They can start in different parts of the world, at different times. Maybe have the Guild of Formation Masters start as an antagonistic response to the Guild of Alchemists.

Mo fidgeted as he thought through the possibilities and eventually let out a sigh.

“We can... probably make it work.”

A week later, a group of alchemists left the Wastes via the southern border.

They were led by Chang, a Pill King who, in recent years, had been serving as a member of the leadership council. When he heard that a group was being sent to establish a new guild, he was the first to volunteer.

Officially, however, their leader was one of the unassuming Grandmasters. While Chang would be the one who was actually in charge of everything, he was already a Peak King and had no need of Lord- or King-level karma. Until the guild was established enough to begin generating Emperor-level karma, he would remain as nothing more than the guild’s steward.

Watching them leave, I could only hope that nothing would go wrong. Everyone was leaving the name of the Su Clan behind in the Wastes, and none of them had a history that would connect them back to us, but I didn’t know what powerful blessing might be out there that could cause problems for us.

Still, if I had learned anything from my last life, it was that the Sovereigns were patient. Whether because the Saint imposed certain rules on their actions or because they saw the entire continent as being under their complete control, the Sovereigns were willing to watch as things unfolded and only react when the time was right. If we wanted to defeat them, then we needed to take full advantage of this complacency.