G. Tolley

Chapter 252 – Life 73, Age 48, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Not long after the conclusion of the tournament for Arena Master, the start of the new year came and passed, and it was soon time for me to return to the Su Clan to pick up my next batch of Disciples.

As this was the first training session after I had poached the clan’s Grand Elder, I expected to face some form of retaliation. Even if TaiZu and the Patriarch weren’t on the best of terms, as the leader of the Su Clan, the Patriarch couldn’t be happy about me stealing away five of h...

Chapter 251 – Life 73, Age 47, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The leadership council spent a month talking to their people and working out ways of choosing new elders that were considered broadly acceptable by nearly everyone. Once they were done, they requested my presence at a council session to discuss the matter.

After guiding me to my seat at the head of their horseshoe-like table, ShouLi got down to business.

“Patriarch, certain members of the clan have recently been agitating for changes to our leadership structure. After a series o...

Chapter 250 – Life 73, Age 47, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After returning to his temporary home on the plateau, TaiZu explained the situation with the clan to his entourage and encouraged them to do their best to blend in. Then, he sent the three Grandmasters to evaluate the lower levels of the mountain and determine what they would need to do to make the place livable.

Not long after they left, one of my clan’s outer elders arrived and gave TaiZu a deep bow.

“Grand Elder, you’ve arrived. Please, let me know how I can assist you.�...

Chapter 249 – Life 73, Age 47, Martial Grandmaster Peak

One week later, I met Su TaiZu and his entourage outside the gates of my Rosehill compound. This time, he didn’t try to sneak around or hide his presence. His disappearance from the Su Clan would be obvious soon enough, so instead, he chose to openly display his change of allegiance for all to see.

Of those who came with him, the ones I paid the most attention to were the four Grandmasters. Su Heng, who was following behind his father, displayed his standard nervous expression, but th...

Chapter 248 – Life 73, Age 47, Martial Grandmaster Peak

When GuiMing had first started building apartments into Mount Jiang, I had instructed him to only build them along the outside edge of the mountain. Even if it meant the mountain wouldn’t be able to house as many people as otherwise, I didn’t want the people in my clan to feel trapped and claustrophobic. I wanted each of them to have a view of the outside world.

This was nice and all, but it left us with a bit of a problem. If we weren’t going to build apartments within the mounta...

Chapter 247 – Life 73, Age 42, Martial Grandmaster Peak

A year after starting everyone down the path of Soul cultivation, I received an important letter from SuYin. She had passed her training and had earned the right to become the lord of one of the Verdant Forest Sect’s outlying cities. As she only had a few months left before she would be raised to Martial Lord, she planned to return to the Wastes for one last visit.

When the time came, Bao and I went down the mountain to meet her in the small, nondescript village where she grew up. Onc...

Chapter 246 – Life 73, Age 40, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Roughly a month later, I gathered up Mo and RuLan and took them to meet their parents.

RuLan was from a distant branch of the Su Clan that might have already been pruned from the family tree if I hadn’t stepped forward and started paying high prices for any Disciples with a Su bloodline. So, even though they were part of the Su Clan officially, all this meant was that their children were forced to endure the Su Clan’s training camp. The clan did nothing to support them.

Like m...

Chapter 245 – Life 73, Age 40, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Several years earlier, I had decided that having my storage space be the shape of a sphere wasn’t ideal. If my storage space continued to grow evenly in every direction, then there would eventually be too much ‘up,’ and it would be difficult to make efficient use of all the space. Additionally, if space’s land was built upon a spherical base, it would constantly shift and move as the sphere’s radius expanded.

To alleviate these problems, I had long ago decided to try and turn ...

Chapter 244 – Life 73, Age 38, Martial Grandmaster Peak

A novel pill recipe. This wasn’t entirely a surprise, but the message served as absolute confirmation that no one had been able to perform alchemy with parts from demonic beasts before.

Did I want to submit the recipe to the ‘Dao?’ What did that mean?

In the past, I hadn’t cared too much because I had only been submitting somewhat worthless cultivation techniques that were likely only important to myself. This pill recipe, on the other hand, had the potential to revolution...

Chapter 243 – Life 73, Age 38, Martial Grandmaster Peak

My working theory was that medicinal energy was not a unique form of energy. Instead, it was simply a blend of qi and wu. This blended energy was then shaped into specific structures to give medicinal herbs their unique properties.

If this was true, then learning to grow and tend herbs might be entirely unnecessary. If I could fully memorize the correct structure of an herb, then I should be able to create it from nothing but pure energy.

While this opened up some in...

Chapter 242 – Life 73, Age 38, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After leaving Bao to get settled in, I went outside to begin work on a new building. Bao was going to need to do a lot of work on soul cultivation, and for that to happen, I first needed to build a Soul Cultivation Library for him.

The plateau was nearly stuffed with buildings by this point. GuiMing and his team were already hard at work building down into the mountain, but they were only Martial Masters, and the mountain was made of Rank 3 blueschist stone. It would still be months bef...

Chapter 241 – Life 73, Age 38, Martial Grandmaster Peak

While the formation necklace I had given Bao wasn’t a long-term solution to his problem, it was enough to keep him stable. I wanted to spend more time with him, but before I could do that, I had to check in on SuYin.

When she had left the letter with Bao, SuYin hadn’t known which city she would be stationed in, so she hadn’t been able to include such information in her letter. Since then, it was possible that she had sent Bao other letters, and it was even possible that she had co...

Chapter 240 – Life 73, Age 38, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After leaving Mount Jiang, I headed directly for the Verdant Forest Sect, and upon arriving there, I went straight to SuYin’s house.

When I had left, SuYin’s position in the sect had seemed stable. She didn’t have any enemies, and there wasn’t any reason for anyone to cause trouble for her. She was simply a rather talented herbalist worthy of nurturing. I had been gone for two years, but none of that should have changed. She shouldn’t have run into any serious problems, but th...

Chapter 239 – Life 73, Age 37, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After returning from the Su Clan, I gathered all the Disciples who had just turned 20 and gave them each a Rank 2 cultivation technique. I considered the trial run on Martial Master advancements that I had done with the leadership council in the previous year to be a success, but I made a few changes for this next group.

This time, I abolished the six-month time limit. These Disciples could cultivate using only the information contained in the Rank 2 technique scroll for as long or as s...

Chapter 238 – Life 73, Age 36, Martial Grandmaster Peak

With the first group of Disciples advancing to Martial Master, there were a few expansions that needed to happen to our settlement on Mount Jiang, and the first one I wanted to tackle was an extension to our Technique Hall.

At the moment, the hall was a rather empty single-story structure. It only contained the three bookcases with the Rank 1 cultivation techniques and one bookcase with the orbs containing basic crafting and martial skills. This limited selection of techniques had been ...

Chapter 237 – Life 73, Age 36, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The Su Clan’s three-month training camp proceeded without any surprises. The elders were more than happy to receive the pills that I had promised them, and they ensured that no one was killed during the sparring sessions. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to find any Earth Dragon’s Tongue Fruit, but I was sure they were doing their best to find it.

At the end of the camp, I recruited 29 new Disciples, the most so far. Unlike in the past, I hadn’t done anything special to recr...

Chapter 236 – Life 73, Age 36, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Note: I am planning to add a few more details to 229/230 concerning the arrangements he made before leaving the clan for the sect, including adding scrolls for the Earth-Rank cultivation techniques to the library. Looking at it now, I feel these preparations were glossed over a bit too much.

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Leaving a few weeks after the last Su Clan competition and returning a couple of weeks before the next one meant that I had been gone from my new clan for nearly eight months...

Chapter 235 – Life 73, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The following lectures focused on various methods for altering the energy levels within a field and determining the correct balance for any given herb. The elder covered a few qi techniques that were useful for making small adjustments, but her main focus was on how to make physical changes to a field to balance its energies.

For wu, this mainly consisted of impregnating a field with energy from demonic beasts. The most common way to do this was by coating the field in a thin layer of b...

Chapter 234 – Life 73, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Young Master Wang dropped Bao off to be shown around the outer sect by another disciple while he led SuYin and me deeper into the city hidden amongst the treetops. After showing us to the house that had been assigned to SuYin, he then gave us a detailed tour of the inner sect.

As we walked, SuYin stayed by Young Master Wang’s side while I followed behind as befit my station as a servant. However, as he showed us around, Young Master Wang focused more on ensuring that I knew where ever...

Chapter 233 – Life 73, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Green Leaf City was located in the middle of an expansive vibrant forest. Unlike the remote cities and villages that served as gateways to other sects, such as South Gate and River Rock, Green Leaf was a veritable metropolis. It wasn’t just a small town where the sect held regular recruitment drives. It was the capital of the Green Leaf Kingdom, the wealthiest kingdom-level power controlled by the Verdant Forest Sect.

As such, while there were many training centers and shops dedicated...

Chapter 232 – Life 73, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Once SuYin was ready, I consumed a Shadowed Soul Pill and followed her out of the hole. While it was unlikely that Young Master Wang or the others would try to attack her at this point, I stayed close by her side to ensure that nothing went awry.

The moment we made it back to the surface, the whole group seated under the pavilion stood to greet us. SuYin walked forward and gave a deep bow to the young man who I had previously identified as Young Master Wang.

“Senior Brother Wang...

Chapter 231 – Life 73, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The discussion amongst those in the pavilion made me question Bao’s interpretation of events. I needed to withhold judgment until I had more information. But before anything else, I needed to find SuYin and ensure her safety.

So, ignoring Young Master Wang and his lackeys for the moment, I walked forward and descended into the abyss.

In front of the pavilion was a path that led downward into the hole. This provided an easy, gentle way forward for anyone looking to brave the dept...

Chapter 230 – Life 73, Age 35, Martial Grandmaster Peak

With everything stable in my nascent clan, I felt things were secure enough that I could spend some time away. So, after replenishing the settlement’s supplies, I hopped on my horse and rode north to the Verdant Fields Sect.

When I had left, SuYin and Bao had been planning to enter the outer sect in an attempt to further their knowledge of herbalism. As they were both powerful Grandmasters with solid foundations at that point, I expected the sect to have questions for them, but I doub...

Chapter 229 – Life 73, Age 33, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After returning to Mount Jiang, I handed my new recruits off to Mo, ShouLi, Liang, and the siblings. They had done an excellent job of raising NiangBa, and I was hopeful that I wouldn’t need to step in to help them too much with this larger group.

Once I was gone, everyone naturally divided themselves into three distinct camps. Mo teamed up with NiangBa, ShouLi with Liang, and GuiMing with GuiAi. Each pair took five of the new recruits and helped them get settled in.

Their first...

Chapter 228 – Life 73, Age 33, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Note: DST had ended in the US, so release times are going to shift for those in other countries.

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At the end of the three-month training period, I brought NiangBa to witness the final competition between the Su Clan Disciples.

Per my request, NiangBa was dressed in ragged, blood-stained clothing. His once immaculate, long, flowing hair was now dirty and shorn close to his scalp. By all appearances, his life over the past month had been brutal, and I doubted a...

Chapter 227 – Life 73, Age 33, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After reaching a deal with the Su Clan’s Grandmasters, they got down to the business of deciding who would be this year’s elites. Even though I had told them I wasn’t interested in poaching any of these ‘top talents,’ they still glanced at me frequently during this process to see if anyone caught my eye.

While listening to their discussions, I was less interested in the Disciples themselves and more interested in their process of choosing who would be an ‘elite.’ As I had ...

Chapter 226 – Life 73, Age 33, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Upon my return to the Su Clan, I went directly to the training complex without stopping in Dragon Gate City. Even though I had not informed the clan of my plans, Su Heng was already waiting for me at the gates when I arrived, and after a few pleasantries, he led me back to the same house I had used last time.

The place was just as I had left it, completely empty of furniture. With just a thought, I brought out all my luxury items and restored the place to its former glory.

This ma...

Chapter 225 – Life 73, Age 32, Martial Grandmaster Peak

Upon leaving my house, GuiAi went to talk with the others about taking a trip down the mountain. It quickly became clear to me that while a cost of 25 points a day was enough to deter long vacations, everyone was ready for a day off, and they were more than willing to pay a couple dozen points to get one.

I had told GuiAi that I was willing to take them anywhere in the Wastes, and that was true, but upon realizing these trips might be more frequent than I first thought, I realized that ...

Chapter 224 – Life 73, Age 32, Martial Grandmaster Peak

The next day, the Disciples came to meet me in front of the Affinity Hall, and I guided them all inside. As they entered, I gestured to the new pedestal that stood to the right of the entryway.

“You should all recognize this. It is an orb used to measure one’s affinities.” They all nodded, easily understanding why such a thing would be useful. “What you may not know is that the Su Clan uses these incorrectly. This may have led you to certain misconceptions about your current aff...

Chapter 223 – Life 73, Age 32, Martial Grandmaster Peak

After leaving the Affinity Hall, I moved to a location roughly a dozen meters away and started building a new Technique Hall. However, as I worked, I kept all my focus on what was happening inside the Affinity Hall. I was certain the Disciples were unaware of how easily I could detect what was happening in there, so I expected the behavior to be a bit more genuine than when I was in the room with them.

Shortly after I left, Liang, who had been deep in thought, lifted his head and starte...