The Undying Immortal System

After YuanFei departed, the mood around me shifted. The cultivators that he and TaiZu had brought with them relaxed their postures and began glancing in my direction with hints of scorn and disdain.

As most of these people were members of TaiZu's and YuanFei's original entourages, this wasn't entirely a surprise. They had never viewed me as an authority figure, and they had done their best to avoid me so that they wouldn't have to show me any kind of deference.

The people took special notice of, however, were elders who had chosen to join in on this little insurrection. They were young men and women I had recruited from the training complex, and they had all chosen to side with YuanFei. They no doubt had their reasons for this, but their reasons didn't matter. The looks of scorn and derision they were giving me were enough to seal their fates.

As I turned to leave, TaiZu spoke.

"Prince Fang, today's events were… unfortunate, but I hope you understand that this is for the best. The Su Clan should be controlled by members of the Su Clan. We will support your efforts, both in the Wastes and beyond, but we will not be your slaves. I am sure that after you think things through, you will agree that handing over the position of Patriarch to YuanFei was the correct decision."

His tone was conciliatory, and I felt that he really believed what he was saying. However, a glance around at his compatriots proved that he was the only one here who had been driven by any such lofty ideals.

I dipped my head to him. "I am sure you are right. I look forward to seeing what this clan becomes under YuanFei's leadership."

TaiZu winced and softly cleared his throat. "Please, Prince Fang, refer to him with his proper title. Patriarch YuanFei."

A faint smirk lifted the left side of my mouth. "Indeed."

As I began walking away, a few of the surrounding cultivators seemed like they wanted to stop me, but a glare from TaiZu froze them in place.

I wasn't sure what to do with the man. He was problematic, in more ways than one, but he wasn't entirely without merit. If he could learn and adapt, his cultivation base, his relative sanity, and his position within the Su Clan at the start of each loop might make him a useful tool, but as things stood, he was simply too unreliable.

Shaking my head, I could only wait and see how things developed.

I wanted to allow news of recent events to spread around the clan a bit before I showed my face anywhere, so after leaving the cultivators who had encircled me behind, I paid a visit to Bao. It had been a few days since I had given him the Earth Dragon's Tongue Fruit, and I wanted to see what he had discovered.

When I asked him about this, he dropped his head in shame.

"I don't know. Nothing I tried worked. I can't even get the seeds to germinate."

As he talked, Bao moved through the garden he had set up atop the Soul Cultivation Library. Each time he passed by a plant, he made slight adjustments to the flow of energy around it.

"What about your blessing? Shouldn't it have helped you figure out what to do?"

This question made Bao stare at one of the plants in thought.

"No. Something is… missing." He walked up to the plant that he had been staring at and began manipulating its energies. "It's like back at the Verdant Fields Sect. I'm… missing something. There's something I don't know, and it's blocking me from understanding what my blessing is telling me. That fruit is… different."

I lifted a hand to stroke my chin in thought.

Why could make the Earth Dragon's Tongue Fruit special? Early on, Bao's trouble stemmed from only focusing on qi. He hadn't known about wu or understood how it could be used in herbalism. Was this situation similar? Was there another type of energy that was missing? The fruit did allow a person to temporarily raise an affinity…

"Bao, have you tried—"

My words were cut off by the sound of several pairs of boots tromping across the roof of the library. Bao and I turned as one and saw half a dozen cultivators approaching us.

When they neared, one of YuanFei's Grandmasters gave Bao a martial salute, but his stiff posture showed that it was only a formality.

"Elder Bao, by order of the Patriarch, your position as guest elder is hereby rescinded. Please hand over your token of office."

Bao blinked at him and then turned to look at me.

I wanted to laugh. It looked like YuanFei wasn't willing to waste any time. He wanted to consolidate his power before anyone could stop him.

I nodded to Bao. "Go ahead and give it to them. As a guest elder, the new Patriarch outranks you, after all. It is only proper to follow his commands."

Bao looked confused, but he did as I said. He detached the token from his waist and held it out to YuanFei's Grandmaster.

The man had a look of absolute superiority on his face as he snatched the token from Bao. Then, he reached into a bag and threw a blank jade at my disciple.

"If you wish to remain in the Su Clan, you can do so as a servant. Serve the Patriarch well, and you will be rewarded."

With this, he turned and walked away. As he did so, I could only wonder if he knew how easily Bao could have ended his life.

Once they were gone, I reached into my storage space, pulled out a token marked with the symbol for 'Revered,' and handed it to Bao.

"Congratulations, you've been promoted to Revered Elder, a position above that of Patriarch."

Bao's mouth opened slightly, and his face showed nothing but bewilderment. He was clearly unaware of recent events.

"Master…"

I waved off his concern. "Don't worry about it. YuanFei and TaiZu have decided to play some political games, and I'm making use of the situation for my own ends. Over the coming days, take note of how everyone behaves around you. Let me know if anyone starts disrespecting you, but try to avoid retaliating against them if you don't have to."

Bao dropped his head and shook it slightly.

We talked a bit longer, and Bao showed me around his garden.

An hour later, I left to take care of some important business. YuanFei had taken over my home, and I needed to see about arranging new accommodations.

GuiMing was the Master of Residential Affairs, but as an inner elder, he didn't have much involvement in the day-to-day process of assigning living quarters. He was more concerned with coordinating everything. His subordinates took care of the details.

So, while I could try contacting GuiMing directly, I instead chose to go through the normal process one would use when requesting a new apartment and headed for the Residential Administration Building located on the eastern edge of the plateau.

On my way there, I passed by dozens of young cultivators.

My presence in the clan had been somewhat sporadic over the years, and I hadn't made too many public appearances, but I had personally recruited everyone here, so they all knew who I was. When they recognized me, the looks they gave me told me that YuanFei had already made sure everyone on the mountain knew about the change in the clan's leadership.

Some people gave me looks of pity, some of confusion, and some of scorn. I made special note of those in that last group, but I did nothing to show my displeasure with them. I wouldn't judge a person too harshly based only on a single look, but I would keep a closer eye on such people.

When I finally entered the administration building, I found a nearly empty room with only a single young man sitting behind a rather ornate desk of carved blueschist.

I smiled at him and gave a quick martial salute.

"Hello, I'd like to apply for a new apartment."

The young man's eyes opened in shock. "Patri— Prin… Prince Fang…"

I cocked my head slightly. I had never called myself 'Prince Fang' here. Was this YuanFei's, TaiZu's, or GuiMing's doing?

I stood there calmly and waited for the young man to get his thoughts in order.

"Yes, Pat— Prince Fang. I… I need to see your token." He hesitated, worried about offending me. "It's standard practice. I can't… Please?"

Smiling, I pulled the token that YuanFei had given me from my waist and handed it to him.

Seeing it, the young man froze.

"Is there a problem?"

"Prince… Fang… this… This is a blank token. It's what is given to the mortal outsiders… I can't…" He looked like he wanted to cry. "Please, let me get Elder GuiMing. He'll know what to do."

I held up a hand to stop him. "What is the problem?"

He closed his eyes and bit his lip in worry. Then, taking a deep breath, he forced out his answer.

"I'm not supposed to give apartments to people with these tokens. That is handled by Elder GuiAi's department. Please, I can contact Elder GuiMing immediately. He will know what to do."

I smiled and waved offhandedly. "No need. I understand. Thank you for the explanation. Continue following the rules properly."

Then, I turned and walked away, leaving the poor kid behind. He was a bit flustered, but I was happy with his performance.

The reaction of the young woman at GuiAi's Mortal Affairs Building wasn't too different. She was horrified at the prospect of assigning the Patriarch a mortal residence. Such a thing ran directly counter to the morals of a Traditionalist, and while I had ensured that all paths of soul cultivation were open to everyone, the paths chosen by the leadership council had made a strong impact on their subordinates. Your next read awaits at empire

Again, I just waved a hand and told her to follow the clan's rules. My token was that of a mortal outsider, and my residence should reflect that.

The receptionist was caught in an untenable situation. Placing me in the apartment of an outsider clashed against her sense of propriety, but so did arguing with me about it. After what was no doubt a fierce internal debate, she dropped her head and did as I requested.

However, the moment I left, I saw her run out of the building in the opposite direction. I was certain that she was headed straight to GuiAi to complain.

At the same time, I caught a glimpse of another figure darting away in a different direction. I wasn't sure where he was headed, but as he had been following me since I had departed GuiMing's branch, I doubted his good intentions.

The apartment I had been assigned was at the bottom of the newly constructed sixth ring. With each ring consisting of five floors, this put me thirty floors below the plateau, near the foot of the mountain.

After the construction of the entertainment hall on the second ring, several elders had started asking me for permission to recruit more mortals to handle mundane tasks around the mountain. Since adding additional bloodlines to our settlement would help alleviate any potential problems with genetic diversity, I had agreed to this request, but I had stipulated that anyone who joined us had to have been born after the start of the time loop. The sibling's parents' inability to go back in time with us was already problematic, and I didn't want to compound the issue.

In response to this influx of mortals, GuiMing had constructed this sixth ring to house them all. Unlike the upper rings, there were no elders in control of the sixth. Instead, it was managed by a combination of GuiAi's and Liang's deacons.

The council had consulted me when this ring was initially set up, and I had reviewed their plans for it, but I hadn't invested too much attention into monitoring it.

So, I got a rather pleasant surprise when I arrived at the sixth ring and saw what greeted me.

Early on, I had told GuiMing and the others that I wanted this mountain to be a place where anyone on the continent would be proud to live. This was supposed to be the headquarters of a future Sovereign clan, and our buildings needed to reflect that.

So, even though the sixth ring was intended for mortals, GuiMing hadn't allowed his teams to slack off. The corridors down here were more spartan than those above, but they were sturdy and well-built. No one had spent any time on decorative wall carvings, but there were ample formations inscribed into the ceilings to give the place a bright, cozy atmosphere.

The apartment I was assigned consisted of only a single room, but it was rather spacious, and it looked to be about the same size as the Disciples' apartments on the upper floors. It even had a balcony where I could theoretically go for a bit of fresh air.

As this balcony was only a few dozen meters above the surrounding bog, the faint stench of decaying plant matter wafted up to assault me the moment I stepped outside, but I still judged the presence of this balcony to be better than nothing. I would just need to look at installing a formation to deal with the smell later.

All in all, I considered the place to be… adequate.

There was still one last item of business I needed to take care of before I could focus on cultivating, but I had to wait for it to come to me. So, I took out a plate for a Qi Gathering Formation, placed it in the center of my apartment, and sat down on it. Then, I took out a few bottles of pills and set them on the floor next to me.

After that, all I could do was wait.

I wanted to cultivate, but I was afraid that doing so might cause my body to be wracked with pain. That would leave me in a vulnerable position, and until this next encounter was over, that would be far too risky.

Thankfully, my guests didn't keep me waiting. After less than half an hour, a large brute of a man kicked in my door and stomped inside. He was followed by four others, and they were all wearing the robes of enforcers.

When they saw me sitting on a formation plate, malicious grins spread across their faces.

"Fang Su, you have been accused of misappropriating clan resources. The Patriarch has declared that if you willingly hand over your storage bag, then your crimes will be forgiven. If you do not, then you will be punished according to the clan's laws."

I put on my best fearful expression and looked up at him. "What? I've not–"

He snorted. "You are sitting on a formation plate owned by the clan, and you have the clan's pills next to you. Your guilt is beyond doubt."

Biting my lower lip, I scooted backward slightly.

The moment I did, the brute raised a fist to attack me.

Feeling that it was finally appropriate, I quickly grabbed my storage bag and held it up to him.

"Here… Please… Take it."

The brute snatched my bag, and all five of the 'enforcers' chortled in amusement. After that, they left. This surprised me somewhat since I thought they might want to rough me up a bit, but I wasn't going to argue about it.

Once they were gone, I pulled a new Qi Gathering Formation out of my storage space and set it up. Then, to ensure that no one could disturb me while I was vulnerable, I surrounded my entire apartment with a powerful defensive formation.

If YuanFei decided to send someone else to attack me, these two new formations would give away the game I had been playing with him, but I had to do what I had to do. I could only hope that he was conceited enough to believe that he had somehow defeated me.