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Immortal Freeloader 139
🕑 Added 2024-08-10 03:50:00 +0000 UTC“Here are the volunteers, sir,” one of the hidden guards said to me as I stood in one of the hidden training rooms under the palace, looking at a hundred young women, each in the Skin Refinement Realm.
I was once again dressed as my apothecary identity, so their reverent gaze was understandable.
“Are you sure you want to volunteer,” I asked. “This is your last chance to refuse the opportunity. If you accept, you’ll be living in isolation for a long time, and there are chances that you won’t see civilization for years, waiting for the opportunity to save the kingdom.”
“We are ready to serve our Queen,” they declared, their devotion incredible. I wasn’t too surprised by their devotion, as they had not only been hopeless commoners before they had been chosen as a part of the secret guard forces, which elevated their social status to an incredible degree, but they had also watched Aisnam take down a Foundation Establishment cultivator with their own eyes.
It was the kind of achievement that turned into stories generations later.
The young woman in front of me was the first time I had picked for the experiment. I found their devotion excessive, therefore their decision was suspect.
I didn’t feel guilty using that devotion, the experiment wasn’t as bleak as I led them to believe. Most likely, they had to live in isolation for merely months rather than years, and if everything went well, they would have the opportunity to reach the Blood Essence realm, attaining power enough to challenge Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Only to be defeated, even against the weak ones, but considering such a cultivator could kill hundreds of Connate Realm martial artists with ease, it was still an incredible improvement.
And, even if the martial arts were problematic, I had the ability to cleanse their bodies of the essence and start fresh. My alchemy level reached a degree that, as long as they were in a formation with a strong defense, I feared nothing.
“One last chance to pull back. You won’t be punished in any way,” I reminded them still. None of them chose that option. I looked at their captain. “You may leave,” I said. She nodded before following that order.
When she left, I triggered a formation, and they all fell unconscious at once. A little creepy, but I didn’t want them to realize they had even left the capital. I loaded all of them onto the flying boat and brought them to the misty mountains.
Particularly, to the mountain I discovered the Burning Blizzard Martial arts, which was a combat style that primarily relied on spears, with some kicks and punches mixed in. It gave me the sense that it was a foundational art.
It had been three days since I had discovered the mountain and the secrets behind it, and I had been busy in the process. Most of my time, I spent translating the martial arts manual. Luckily, unlike the letter written by that hack who thought himself a calligraphy genius, the rest of the manual had been written by a true expert, with enough intent lingering behind the words for me to translate.
Once that was complete, I created a few fake transactions and confirmed that it indeed didn’t register on the System.
However, it wasn’t the only thing I had done during those three days. I had also refined a hundred Martial Aptitude Pills. I couldn’t recycle them through the System since my plan was to feed them to my experimental subject, but with my abundant materials and improving alchemy skills, I was still able to maintain a consistent output.
With the assistance of a few formations and guidance from the Kartpa Alchemy Technique, I managed to forge a hundred Black Peak Grade martial aptitude pills, and it merely took half a day.
Mass production for the win.
That was not the only thing I had refined. I also refined a huge batch of essence pills to provide them with energy. However, I didn’t refine any other supporting pills, not before understanding the difference between ancient and modern martial arts more in detail.
The other thing I had done was to remodel the mountain completely. The cave, I had turned into a giant underground complex with no entry and exit, but with enough amenities to make their stay comfortable.
Comparatively, the remodeling outside took more time. I had turned the mountain into a giant garden, even going as far as transplanting a lot of spirit plants from Markas, providing enough Qi I could use for emergencies.
I took their security seriously.
Luckily, that abundance of Qi meant that I could easily use alchemy to remove hints of their old martial arts and remodel their talent. Then, I fed them the martial talent pill and used the medical knowledge that came with the alchemy to channel that efficiency perfectly.
Combined, their talent should reach an incredible degree.
Essentially, I was repeating what the conspiracy trying to do, but I was doing it far better.
Once everything was ready, I had brought them to the main training room, which I had deliberately made look like the earlier training room, giving them the impression that they hadn’t been transported, but just fell asleep.
There were three differences. The copy of the door they entered was just a piece of wall carved to look like a sealed door. There was a large glass platform that contained the translated version of Burning Blizzard martial art, but only to the peak of the Connate Realm, radiating the conception of a burning volcano wrapped in a blizzard.
Then, behind them, on the wall, there was the original spiritual pillar symbol. The essence conception it radiated was nothing compared to my writing, but it wasn’t why it was there.
No, it was here, because it was necessary to practice Burning Blizzard technique.
That had been the biggest difference between Everdawn Arts and the Burning Blizzard. Everdawn Arts just required the martial artists to devote themselves to the empire wholeheartedly, meanwhile, Burning Blizzard required them to periodically visit the spiritual pillar to establish a connection physically.
I didn’t know enough about the ancient martial arts to reliably deduce whether it was about the quality of the martial arts, the difference of nature between the empire and the sects, or something else. I could only blindly guess.
Hence the reason for experimentation.
The trainees all woke up, looking shocked. “My martial arts,” a few of them gasped. I even saw a few of them preparing to practice in panic.
“Stop, and don’t practice,” I warned them. “I have erased your martial arts to enable you to practice the true power of the ancient martial arts, which had been lost in the great disaster. First, cut your hand and bleed over the spiritual pillar, then start reading the technique. Don’t practice before my order.”
They looked hesitant, but they still followed my order. I had carefully examined them as they did so, formations giving me every detail about their bodies. The moment their blood touched the drawing, the drawing weakened even further.
At the same time, a small essence flickered in their dantian, one that would have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for my own martial talent enhanced by a Heaven Grade pill, making me extremely sensitive to even the weakest flicker of essence.
Technically, with that, they had reached the Initiate stage, but only theoretically. Practically, that essence meant nothing.
Seeing the softness of the energy, I was sure that whatever plan they had for this base, would have failed if anyone other than me had discovered the secret compartment. It was clear that the spiritual pillar had weakened by the passage of time, and only a cheater like me could revitalize it.
However, even as I watched, I was glad that I had chosen the first batch of experiment targets from the royal guards, who already worshiped my apothecary identity. As the old wise man who had created hundreds of Connate Ream martial artists in a few months, my prestige was second to Aisnam.
That earned me enough respect that they followed my orders even if I destroyed their martial cultivation.
I let them read the text several times, making sure that their understanding of the unique essence deepened. If it wasn’t for their remodeled talent, we would have required months before they could even understand the complicated essence. After all, the conspiracy had been working for longer than a month, and despite the fact that Everdawn Essence was far stronger than the ice and fire essence, they were yet to reach the Blood Essence realm.
But, they didn’t have an expert of my ability to guide them. I still waited until they finished reading the text multiple times. I even asked them to recite certain portions with their eyes closed, testing if they memorized every detail perfectly.
Admittedly, the memorization part wasn’t as critical. I just needed them to focus every word with their full attention and let the calligraphy do the rest.
However, soon, it was time to act. “I need a volunteer,” I called, ready to raise my first expert in ancient martial arts…
Comments
RedFaux
This feels like a jump from the last chapter?
