The Undying Immortal System

On the day of the Inner Sect Challenge, I met Jiao near the entrance to the stadium.

"Are you ready?"

I nodded with confidence. "Yes. My skills with Rank 2 pills have hit a point of diminishing returns. Without a significant time investment, a better affinity, or a blessing to help me, I'm basically at my limit. If this isn't enough to join the inner sect, then that's simply my fate."

Jiao smiled at me. "Just remember, to join the inner sect, you need powerful abilities and influential connections. The more of one you have, the less of the other you need. Since you're an independent, you won't have to compete with the faction disciples, but that also means you need to shine bright enough to stand out on your own. Your elder can only do so much for you."

The unwritten rules of this challenge had become clear to me over the years. Each of the three factions would always receive the same number of inner sect disciples, so the real competition was within the factions, not between them. If one were the second-best alchemist in their faction, it would be incredibly difficult to advance to the inner sect.

Of course, the same number for each faction didn't mean only one from each faction. As long as the numbers were balanced, two or three disciples could be selected from each. The complication was that if the Snakes had three excellent alchemists, but the Tigers only had one, they were incentivized to only allow one person per faction to pass.

Since I was under Elder Mu, an independent elder, the faction games didn't affect me too much. I wouldn't be excluded because someone better had already been chosen, but I also wouldn't get included just because there was an extra slot. So, more than anything, I needed the elders to see value in promoting me to the inner sect.

This 'value' was about both the quality and the quantity of pills an alchemist could produce. The elders didn't just want someone who could give them a single excellent pill once a month, they also needed those who could produce dozens of high-quality pills every week.

After contemplating my odds of success, I gave Jiao a reassuring smile.

"Elder Mu sent me a message. He said everything was taken care of, and he seemed confident that I would succeed."

"Really? That's odd. I heard that Elder Hu decided to attend personally this year. This made Elder Long and Elder Tao come as well. These three are each the heads of their faction's Alchemy Peak branches. The judging panel is completely stacked against the independents."

I could only shrug. "I don't know. He seemed sure that as long as I produced pills at my usual level of quality, it would be enough."

Jiao threw her hands up in defeat. "Well, good luck then. I'll be rooting for you."

"Welcome everyone. I am Tan GaoFeng, the Deputy Sect Master for the Twin Mountains Sect in charge of the Alchemy Peak. If you are new to the sect and this is your first time at one of these competitions, I welcome you."

I stood silently alongside my eighteen competitors as the audience politely applauded.

"The Inner Sect Challenge is held once every three years. Every outer sect disciple who has reached the realm of Martial Grandmaster has been invited to participate. Unlike the competition to become an outer sect member, there is no set number for how many may be promoted to the inner sect. Instead, our panel of esteemed elders will decide who is most deserving of this honor. This is done on an individual basis, so you only need to do your best."

I looked to where Elders Hu, Long, and Tao sat in judgment over us. They would be the ones deciding my fate.

After allowing his words time to linger, the Sect Master continued.

"For this competition, you will each be making three pills. We will start with the most straightforward. You need only concoct a fire-focused Meridian Builder Pill. This pill should be familiar to everyone, so I hope that you will use this opportunity to show off the height of your abilities."

This was the pill I felt the most confident about. Without a specific blessing to aid them, none of my competitors would be my match. Of course, it seemed unlikely to me that no one would have such a blessing. I just had to hope that the number who did was limited.

I carefully prepared and began working. After melting the herbs' physical structures, I burned away any and all of their visible pill toxins. As I was doing this with my spirit fire, I was careful to leave a thick layer of toxin whenever I came close to the medicinal energy. With the qi of a Grandmaster, I was more than capable of supplying enough fire qi to eliminate such dregs, so there was no need to risk damaging the medicinal energy by allowing my spirit fire to get too close to it.

When the medicinal energy was all prepared, I used my Empowering Technique to strengthen the medicinal earth energy with my fire qi.

Finally, I combined each portion of medicinal power in sequence and then compressed it.

The energy crystallized, and a small, perfectly round pill dropped to the bottom of my cauldron.

I picked it up and examined it. I didn't have any abilities or techniques for analyzing Rank 2 pills, but based on my experience, I could still do a rough appraisal. I estimated that it was a peak High-Purity pill with 118% efficacy. Since only Perfect pills were capable of achieving a base efficacy of 100%, and the theoretical maximum bonus of the Empowering Technique was 20%, I was confident that this pill would be enough to secure one of the top spots in this round of the competition.

I had taken my time, so I wasn't the first to finish concocting my pill, but I wasn't far behind. I wasn't sure how much importance would be placed on speed, but I didn't want to lose points in this regard if I didn't have to.

Once everyone was finished, the pills were all taken away to be judged.

Sect Master Tan GaoFeng returned to the front of his podium.

"Next, you will all need to make a wood-focused Meridian Builder Pill." He chuckled slightly. "Everyone has a natural advantage when making the fire version, but this should stretch your abilities slightly more."

The elemental cycle to create a wood-focused pill began with fire. I couldn't empower the medicinal fire energy the same way I had with the earth energy, but that didn't mean I was helpless. After studying countless techniques in the libraries of Elder Mu and the Sect, I was able to create a derivative version of the Empowering Technique.

I focused on the medicinal fire energy and carefully began adding my fire qi to it. This would not improve the fire energy in any way, and trying to force the issue would only damage the efficacy of the final pill.

Instead, I wove strands of qi throughout the structure of the medicinal energy without ever touching it. In most pills, this would be futile at best as the qi would never truly integrate with the medicinal energy, but making the medicinal fire energy more potent wasn't my goal.

After this initial stage was complete, I integrated this amalgamation of qi and medicinal energy with the medicinal earth energy. As the two were merging, my fire qi excited the earth energy, causing it to become slightly more potent than usual. This technique couldn't be used to produce any shocking alchemic wonders since using too much fire qi would overwhelm the mixture. However, it did allow me to improve a pill in ways the other disciples wouldn't be able to match.

After completing my pill, I examined it. My estimate put it at 106% efficiency. This was far worse than what the Empowering Technique could accomplish, but it was still better than nothing.

As I was the only one who added this extra step to the process, I was the last to finish in the second round, but I didn't worry about the loss of time. My improved pill should be considered far more valuable than completing the task a few minutes earlier.

After our pills were taken away, the Sect Master assumed his position on the podium once more.

"The final pill for today will be a Rank 2 Explosive Pill."

Explosive pills were tricky, and I was surprised to see them as part of this competition.

This pill consisted of four herbs: one wood herb, one metal herb, and two fire herbs.

I didn't have any special method to help me here because I had never wanted to risk experimenting with explosives, so I could only execute the basic pill to the best of my ability.

First, I combined the wood herb with one of the fire herbs, strengthening it. Then I wove the empowered fire herb together with the unempowered one. These two energies did not merge. Instead, they formed a structure resembling a large ball of twine with two different-colored strings mixed haphazardly together. This combined ball of fire energy was completely inert since the energies could neither move nor combine.

The ball of fire energy was then wrapped in fire qi, and the fire qi was wrapped in the energy from the metal herb. Finally, the energy ball was compressed until it crystallized into a solid form.

I carefully picked up the final pill and gingerly placed it into a padded pill bottle.

The fire qi acted as an insulator between the metal and fire energies. When crushed, the metal energy would pierce through the layer of qi and into the fire energy, destabilizing it. This would create an explosion, and I had no desire to be anywhere near this pill when that happened.

When I was finished, I placed my pill bottle on a jade tray to be judged and quickly escaped to the edge of the arena. Some of the competitors were doing their best to fight for a place in the inner sect, and I wanted to be far away from them if their attempts ended in disaster.

Fortunately, disaster never struck. Many people had their pills collapse, but this was always before they would have begun working with the metal energy, so there was never any true danger.

After all the completed pills were collected, the Sect Master addressed us once more.

"Congratulations on completing the Inner Sect Challenge! Please wait while the elders discuss your results."

Had I done enough? My first pill could easily contend with anything a regular disciple could produce, and my second pill used a unique refinement process. That should be enough. The only thing that could keep me out of the inner sect was politics, and for that, I had to rely on Elder Mu.

After half an hour of deliberation, the elders reached their verdict, and Elder Hu stepped forward and spoke in a voice loud enough to be heard everywhere in the arena.

"Sect Master Tan, we have reached our decision. The first disciple promoted is Hu JinPo."

As he announced this, a wide, proud grin broke out on the elder's face.

Then, Elder Long stepped forward. "Next is Bao DuPing."

Finally, it was Elder Tao's turn. "Third is Jiang FeiLong."

After each name, a small burst of applause could be heard from different parts of the stadium from the members of the chosen alchemist's faction.

After glancing at the other elders, Elder Hu spoke once more. "We will also promote Wen Hong."

Wen Hong? Was he related to Wen Hao? Wen Hao was in Elder Hu's faction, so were they advancing two people each?

Elder Long lifted his chin to address the audience. "And Bao DuJin."

Elder Tao glanced around at each of the remaining alchemists. "I congratulate everyone for their accomplishments today. However, the final inner sect disciple this year will be Su Fang."

At this pronouncement, he looked directly at me with a wide, inviting smile.

After the selections were complete, the disciples who were not chosen quietly exited the arena while those who had been picked walked toward their respective elders.

I wasn't sure what to do. Had I just been poached by the Eyes? As a disciple under Elder Mu, wouldn't it be improper for me to join Elder Tao? I didn't know how to react, but Elder Tao represented the Sect Master. I had to give him face.

I walked to where Jiang FeiLong was already talking with the elder and gave a deep bow. "Hello, Elder Tao. Thank you for allowing me to join the inner sect."

He placed a hand on my shoulder and forced me to rise. "Disciple Su, I've heard a lot about you. Welcome to the Righteous Defenders of the Twin Mountains."