The Undying Immortal System

Near the end of the year, the clan held its second annual competition to select new elders. This time, however, the atmosphere surrounding the event wasn’t nearly as lively as it had been the first time. This was because the positions up for grabs were for the workshops.

The reason for this muted enthusiasm wasn’t because there was a lack of interested participants. Nearly everyone in the clan was skilled in at least one profession, and the workshops were considered an important hub of activity on the mountain. There were more than a few ambitious youths who were looking to use this competition to make a name for themselves.

Instead, the lack of enthusiasm was because the method Mo had settled on for choosing the new Master of the Workshops wouldn’t be nearly as exciting to watch as the tournament for Arena Master had been.

Mo had decided that the most important ability for an elder of the workshops to possess was the ability to properly analyze the items people produced. So, each person vying for a seat as an elder would be shown a series of items and be asked to appraise them. Those who did the best job would become elders. Unfortunately, while this might be a good method for choosing elders, it didn’t easily lend itself to the spectacle that people were craving.

Low entertainment value aside, there was an important problem that Mo had to address for this competition to even be feasible.

Each contestant would be shown the same series of items, and a panel of deacons from the workshops would then have to judge who had given the most correct, complete appraisal of each item. For this to work, these judges needed correct, detailed information about every item that was going to be appraised. This was a bit of a problem since the only people who were qualified to produce such detailed information were the competitors themselves.

How was this panel supposed to judge the appraisals of people who possessed more knowledge and understanding than they did?

After failing to find a solution to this problem, Mo eventually came and asked me to solve it for him.

While I wanted to help, my knowledge of most professions was only superficial. Outside of pills and formations, I would have as hard of a time appraising things as anyone else in the clan.

Also, while I had purchased knowledge of talisman making and had spent over a decade studying refining, my knowledge of these topics wasn’t much different from what the members of my clan had gained from the memory orbs. I simply didn’t have the exhaustive experience needed to be able to give detailed analyses of such items.

So, in order to help Mo out, I made a few purchases from the System. They weren’t too expensive, and I would eventually want them anyway, so there was no reason not to go ahead and buy them.

“System, I want to purchase detailed analysis abilities for Rank 3 herbs, talismans, beasts, refined items, illusions, and gu.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 600 million credits. 539,805,430,897 credits remaining.

“Also, upgrade my Rank 3 pill appraisal ability so that it gives me more detailed information.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 50 million credits. 539,755,430,897 credits remaining.

With these abilities in place, I made a trip to the Blue Wind Pavilion in Dragon Gate City and made a series of purchases for random items from Rank 1 to Rank 3.

While most of what I needed was available there, illusion formations were a bit more difficult to come by in the Wastes. Not only that, but I was also told that finding the variety of Rank 3 illusions formation plates I was looking for would be pretty much impossible in any of the surrounding empires. I could hire a team of illusionists and formation specialists to make them for me, but that would require time I didn’t have.

To get the formation plates I needed before the end of the year, I was forced to special order them from the headquarters of the Blue Wind Pavilion in Blue Wind City.

Special ordering formation plates wasn’t exactly cheap, but to me, the cost of a few spirit stones for half a dozen Rank 3 formations was rather insignificant. However, the cost of hiring a Martial Lord to deliver them to the edge of the Wastes on a Rank 5 wind horse was simply extortionate.

I wasn’t exactly a master of planning myself, so it was difficult for me to place too much blame on Mo for not foreseeing the need for these formations ahead of time, but I would need to have a talk with him about requesting necessary supplies in advance in the future.

Once I had everything in hand, I used my various analysis abilities to write up a detailed description of each item.

Without the aid of a blessing, there was no chance that anyone on the entire continent would be able to match the level of detail provided by my new abilities. For example, the enhanced pill analysis ability not only showed the efficacy of the final product, but it also gave a pill’s theoretical maximum efficacy based on the herbs involved and the processes used while concocting it.

To ensure the competition’s fairness, I placed the descriptions of each item into a sealed envelope which the judges would only be allowed to open after all the competitors had submitted their final answers.

On the day of the competition for Master of the Workshops, the arena at the center of the plateau was converted into a stage for professionals to display their skills for everyone to see.

For some of the professions, such as alchemy and herbalism, this was bound to be rather boring. An herb would be placed on a table, the competitors would write down everything they could about it, and then the judges would review their answers. There simply wasn’t much to see.

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Acknowledging this, the council had arranged things to try and make things as entertaining as possible.

Key to this were the illusion formations I had purchased. None of them had any offensive components, so spectators were free to visit and experience them throughout the day.

On the flip side, the demon beasts I had purchased for the beast taming portion of the competition had been seen as a disappointment. The only beasts easily purchased in the Wastes had been farm animals, and no one cared much about getting to see a few cows and pigs.

As for the format of the competition, one outer elder would first be chosen for each of the seven professions represented in the clan. Then, these seven would compete against Mo for the position of inner elder. If one of the outer elders was victorious, then the person who had placed second in the previous competition would be elevated to outer elder and Mo would step down from his leadership duties.

I watched each of these competitions, but I wasn’t too invested in them. It didn’t make any difference to me who the new outer elder for the herbalists was, and I felt like I had never even seen most of the people competing for the spot of the refining elder before.

When it came time to select the elders for the illusionists and formation specialists, I was a bit more interested since I had worked with many of the competitors while designing the illusory sky formation, but I wasn’t invested in any one particular person winning.

However, when the alchemy competition began, I was shocked when I saw one of the competitors.

The first person who stepped forward to compete was RuLan, Mo’s wife. On its own, this wouldn’t have been too surprising, but upon seeing her…

While I had used roots to burrow through the entirety of Mount Jiang and keep track of everything that was going on, I made a conscious effort not to spy on anyone’s private lives. I made slight exceptions for YuanFei and TaiZu, but in general, I had no interest in being some kind of voyeur. This was especially true when it came to any bedroom-related activities.

So, when RuLan stepped forward for the alchemy competition with a bulging belly, my jaw dropped as I realized that Mo was about to be a father.

This wouldn’t be the first baby born on Mount Jiang. Every year, the number of young mothers in the clan had only increased. However, this was the first time in any of my lives that someone I felt any connection to was going to have a child.

Seeing this, I wanted to get Mo a gift, but more importantly, I wanted RuLan to win the competition.

As it turned out, the judges for the alchemy competition ignored pretty much everything I had written on the answer sheets. They only focused on who had labeled the most pills correctly and whose listed efficacies were closest to correct.

This wasn’t because they didn’t care about the rest of the details. It was because the competitors hadn’t been able to deduce any of it.

In the end, RuLan secured a narrow victory and became the new outer elder for the alchemists.

After all the individual competitions were over, the new outer elders competed against Mo.

Mo lost to every single one of these experts.

He wasn’t as knowledgeable about alchemy as RuLan, and he wasn’t as informed about formations as the young man who had won that competition.

However, after all the results were calculated, Mo came out as the ultimate victor. He wasn’t as knowledgeable as these specialists in their particular field, but the breadth of his knowledge spanned all seven professions, something that no one on stage could compete with.

With the competition for Master of the Workshops complete, everything returned to its normal routine, and several weeks passed by without incident. The start of the new year came and went, and it was soon time for the Su Clan’s annual training camp.

After YuanFei’s departure, I wasn’t sure if everything would still proceed as normal or not, and even if it did, I wasn’t sure if I would still be welcome. With YuanFei under my protection, YuanFeng couldn’t be too happy with me, after all. However, since my goal was to stir the pot, I went ahead and visited the training compound to see what would happen.

To my surprise, YuanKong, third son of the former Patriarch, stepped in to fulfill the role of his brother, and everything proceeded as if nothing had changed.

YuanKong was even more inept at controlling his qi than YuanFei had been, and there were far more children present this year than I had ever seen before, so the blessing ceremony was a small catastrophe. YuanKong’s improperly directed energy caused more than one child to scream out in pain, and I was certain that most of the children past the first couple of rows hadn’t been awakened at all, but I held my tongue and let the clan handle things as they saw fit. If YuanKong couldn’t manage the training camp properly, it would only make my job of recruiting Disciples easier.

To my slight dismay, while YuanKong had done a terrible job of replacing YuanFei, the clan’s Second Elder was the same old man who had been there for decades, and he kept everything running as smoothly as it always had.

So, at the end of the three-month training camp, I was only able to convince 89 of the 134 Disciples to join me.

During all this time, neither YuanKong nor YuanFeng made any moves against me, and I was almost starting to think that they had decided to write off any plans to punish me for sheltering YuanFei and the Grand Elder. However, just as I was about to leave, YuanKong paid me a visit.

After taking a seat in my sitting room, he got right to the point.

“Prince Fang, the Su Clan has benefited greatly from the pills you have provided us over the years, and this has kindled a great love of alchemy in the Patriarch. Because of this, he has recently invested a considerable number of resources into training our Disciples in the hope that we will be able to nurture several talented alchemists of our own.”

I stroked my chin as I considered YuanKong’s words.

“Are you suggesting that the Su Clan no longer needs the resources I can provide?”

“Not at all. We are more than happy to continue our partnership. All I am saying is that we have begun nurturing several promising young alchemists.” YuanKong gave me a predatory smile. “As such, we would be interested in an exchange of pointers. Growth comes through competition, so the Patriarch has suggested that our clan’s alchemists should compete with the alchemists in your retinue.”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. Why would they think they would be able to compete with a group of alchemists who could make Perfect Pills?

“Are you sure?”

YuanKong nodded. “Yes, but to make things interesting, the Patriarch has suggested that this should be a competition between the members of the Su Clan who have joined your retinue and those who have stayed behind. This way, we can test both the skill of the individuals as well as the talent of their teachers.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I wanted to laugh, but I restrained myself. Instead, I narrowed my eyes in feigned suspicion.

Just as I was about to respond, YuanKong held up a hand.

“Don’t be too quick to reject. The Patriarch has also suggested that we make a small wager on this competition that you might be interested in.” A glint appeared in YuanKong’s eyes. “If the Su Clan wins, you will hand over the traitors Su YuanFei, Su Heng, and Su TaiZu.”

“And if the members of my ‘retinue’ win?”

YuanKong clapped his hands, and a servant walked in with a large jade box.

After taking this box from the servant, YuanKong held it up to show me what was inside.

“If you win, you will get the very thing that you came all the way to the Wastes to find. You will receive an Earth Dragon’s Tongue Fruit.”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter any longer, and a hearty chuckle escaped from my lips. After wiping a tear from my eye, I nodded in agreement.

“Deal. Let’s compete.”