The Undying Immortal System

Allowing Grandmasters from the Su Clan to join us on Mount Jiang held countless hidden dangers, but these dangers were what I hoped would allow my clan to improve and develop further. However, letting them in unchecked would simply be reckless.

Would the Su Clan’s Grand Elder be able to convince people to betray me? For most people, I felt that this was unlikely, but in any large group of people, there would always be those looking to gain benefits by switching sides.

I needed to keep an eye on these newcomers, and I needed to keep an eye on the members of my clan to see how they reacted to their presence. Thankfully, as a wood cultivator, I had the tools needed to do that.

Under my house, I created a small, secret chamber. Then, I started the process of spreading roots from this chamber and connecting them to various important locations throughout the mountain. Using these roots, I would be able to actively observe everything that happened and ensure that these Grandmasters didn’t do anything too inappropriate.

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 the other three were far more stoic and gave me an impression reminiscent of Ning ChenKun’s deathsworn. I doubted the former Grand Elder of the Su Clan possessed the means of creating true deathsworn, but through the use of carefully tailored cultivation techniques, he might have been able to craft a close facsimile.

When I led this group inside the formation, the Grandmasters sent out their qi to probe their surroundings, but no one seemed overly surprised when they discovered that the complex was entirely empty.

I looked at TaiZu with a raised eyebrow. “You already knew the Disciples wouldn’t be here?”

He chuckled slightly. “Prince Fang, you have recruited hundreds of children over the years. Housing them all in this one estate would be… challenging. We knew that you were taking most of them elsewhere. We just didn’t know if you took them all away or if you left the newest ones here for basic training.”

I nodded in acceptance, but considering the number of spies I had recruited, I wasn’t quite willing to attribute everything to TaiZu’s brilliant deductive capabilities.

I reached into my storage bag, pulled out several jade bottles, and passed them out to the group.

“Since you were able to work out that the Disciples aren’t here, then you must have been able to figure out that we aren’t staying here either. Each of you needs to take one of these pills. They will put you to sleep, and when you wake up, you will be in your new home.”

This made the three unknown Grandmasters narrow their eyes at me, but the TaiZu waved his fingers to flick away their concerns.

“Take the pill. We have no reason to distrust Prince Fang.”

Su Heng gave his father a wary look, but the others immediately followed the elder’s command. Only a moment after consuming their pills, the three Grandmasters dropped to the floor unconscious. Following this, TaiZu took his pill along with the various Masters and Disciples.

The last man standing was Su Heng. He squeezed his eyes shut, gave a quick prayer to the Heavenly Dao, and swallowed the pill.

The moment he fell unconscious, I stowed everyone in my storage space and took off.

I chose to revive everyone in ShouLi’s old house within the residential area on the eastern side of the Plateau. It was the most impressive-looking building around, and it was more than large enough to hold TaiZu’s entire retinue.

Once everyone was awake, I gathered them all in the primary sitting room.

“I’ve temporarily adjusted the sect-protecting formation to prevent anyone from entering or exiting this building without my permission. I would ask that none of you try to break it. I need to take Grandmaster TaiZu for a meeting with my leadership council. While you wait, you should read through the booklets in your rooms. They contain the information we typically provide to any Disciples who join our ranks. They should allow you to begin familiarizing yourself with the situation here.”

No one seemed thrilled at the prospect of being trapped here, but TaiZu just walked forward and nodded.

“Please lead the way.”

I gestured to the door, and we stepped outside. The moment we did so, the elder’s genial countenance shattered, and a look of genuine shock appeared on his face.

“Mount Jiang? You hid your entire retinue on Mount Jiang? How?”

I gave him a slight smile.

“I mentioned a sect-protecting formation, didn’t I? It is… quite good.”

TaiZu looked around with wide eyes. “Yes… It seems that it is.”

As we walked, I introduced him to the surroundings.

“This is the old residential area. It was where everyone lived when we first arrived here, but in recent years, we’ve carved out several layers of rooms within the mountain, and everyone has migrated down there. That has caused this place to fall into a bit of disuse. It needs to all be torn down and replaced with something new, but our builders are currently a bit overworked with everything going on inside the mountain.”

As I continued talking and introduced the arena and workshops, TaiZu just walked along and silently nodded as he took everything in. If I had introduced him to the Affinity Hall, I was certain that his reaction would have been a bit more exaggerated, but I left that task for others to deal with.

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After a brief tour of the plateau, I took him down to the large meeting room that had been carved into the dead center of the top floor of the mountain. Inside, the leadership council was already gathered.

While I had called for them to assemble, I hadn’t told them the reason. When I walked into the room with the elderly TaiZu by my side, there were signs of shock on everyone’s face. However, no one was nearly as stunned as ShouLi. From her position near the center of the council’s horseshoe-shaped table, she stared at TaiZu with a mix of astonishment and confusion.

Before anyone could talk, I gestured to the man I had entered with.

“This is Grandmaster TaiZu. He has chosen to join our ranks and has brought several other cultivators along with him. He has no understanding of what joining us means, and he knows nothing about how things are structured here. Treat him as a new recruit, teach him about the mountain, and integrate his group into our settlement. You may handle this however you wish. If you need additional identity jades, let me know.”

With that, I turned around and left.

TaiZu didn’t even know that he was joining a clan, not a retinue. It would be interesting to see how the council dealt with this situation.

As soon as I left, I quickly retreated to the secret chamber beneath my house and connected to my new root network to observe everyone’s reactions.

With Grandmaster TaiZu standing in front of their table, the leadership council could only stare in silence. None of them wanted to be the first to speak.

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Taizu gave a slight chuckle and looked at ShouLi.

“Is that Little Li I see? Prince Fang decided to make you part of his leadership team? It’s good to see you’ve been doing well here.”

ShouLi dipped her head in acknowledgment. “Yes, uncle… Hello.”

Before silence could return to the room once again, TaiZu cleared his throat and clapped his hands.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“So, I am to be told about the mountain and integrated into Prince Fang’s retinue. What do I need to know?”

These words broke the council out of its stupor, and they looked around at each other, a bit confused. Sensing that they were in for an extended conversation, ShouLi gestured to GuiMing who ducked into a side room and pulled out an extra chair, giving TaiZu a place to sit.

Then, ShouLi began a brief overview of the clan.

“Uncle Zu, I’m not sure what the Su Clan knows about what’s going on here, but we aren’t a part of a Lord’s retinue. The P… Prince Fang isn’t creating an army. He’s creating a clan. He is the Patriarch.”

TaiZu appeared to take this information in stride. The fact that I was only recruiting people from the Su Clan had likely already led him to consider this possibility, but from his reaction, I doubted he knew enough about Sovereigns to know why creating a clan was so important.

ShouLi gave him an overview of the clan’s leadership structure, placing me at the top, the inner elders as my direct subordinates, and the outer elders as subordinate to the inner elders. As for Bao, she only said that he was a guest elder outside of the clan’s hierarchy and uninvolved in its governance.

Once the basics were covered, ShouLi addressed the problem in front of them.

“Uncle Zu, Grandmaster TaiZu, as you can see, it is a little difficult to know how to integrate your retinue into the clan. As a new recruit, you should be placed into the care of one of the outer elders, but as a Grandmaster…”

TaiZu nodded and remained silent, allowing the council to decide what to do without trying to influence their decision.

GuiMing, as the head of the residential areas, spoke up to give a bit more context.

“At the moment, the clan occupies three rings within the mountain, with each ring consisting of five floors. The First Ring, the top levels, is controlled by the inner elders. There are two unused sections here, but…”

ShouLi stepped in to explain. “Those are reserved for the Patriarch and Elder Bao. They aren’t in use, but it isn’t our place to request access to them.”

TaiZu nodded in acceptance of this statement, but I felt that it was a bit off. If they wanted to, they could have asked Bao for the section in the First Ring that he had been allocated, and he would have undoubtedly let them do whatever they wanted with it.

I couldn’t help but feel that ShouLi refused to consider this because she didn’t want to give TaiZu a position that rivaled her own. For the same reason, any talk of allowing the elder to remain in a building on the plateau was quickly quashed since that would have put him on equal standing with me and Bao.

Finally, GuiMing made the only suggestion that seemed acceptable to everyone involved.

“Let’s build a Fourth Ring. The mountain is tall enough for a dozen more, so there’s no reason not to continue expanding downward. The Third Ring isn’t full yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go ahead and get started on the Fourth.”

ShouLi wrinkled her brow at this. On one hand, it would make TaiZu a de facto elder of the clan from the moment he entered, but on the other, it would solve the sticky situation that they were dealing with. By placing him in the Fourth Ring, below even the outer elders, they were signaling that while he was an elder, he was the lowest of them.

Considering his cultivation base, this could be seen as an insult, but considering his lack of seniority within the clan, it was the best option available.

Eventually, ShouLi nodded. “We’ll do that then.”

TaiZu just smiled in acceptance.

They spent a while longer working out various details, but eventually, Taizu left to arrange everything with his retinue.

With the Grand Elder having departed, ShouLi slumped in her chair and covered her face with her hands.

“What is the Patriarch thinking? Why did he do this?”

Most of the group had worried expressions on their faces, but Mo just looked contemplative.

Liang reached over and put a hand on ShouLi’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. The Patriarch is a bit of a bastard, but he isn’t crazy. If he brought that guy here, then he’s confident he can control him. From where I was sitting, it looked like the elder knew this as well, so I don’t think he’ll stir up any trouble.”

To the side, Mo nodded.

NiangBa just shook his head. “The Patriarch might be able to control him, but not us. My boys and I are strong enough to take down a Low-Rank 3 demon beast without too much trouble these days, but I felt a strong sense of suppression from that old man. He has to be at least a Grandmaster 5.”

ShouLi let out a wry chuckle. “He’s a Peak Grandmaster. That was Elder TaiZu, the Grand Elder of the Su Clan. Aside from the old ancestor, he’s probably the strongest person in the entire clan. The Patriarch might be able to handle him, but he could crush the rest of us with nothing more than a thought.”

This caused Mo to furrow his brow in concentration.

GuiAi was starting to get worried. “Is the Patriarch thinking about replacing us? Is he going to start letting elders from the Su Clan take everything over?”

This question caused everyone to tense up, and silence descended on the room. The one who broke it was Mo.

“No. Something else is going on… This…”

Mo closed his eyes and thought through the situation.

Suddenly, his eyes shot open, and he quickly looked from one person to the next.

“We all have people with questionable loyalty among our subordinates. Talk to them. Tell them that it’s time for them to decide whose side they’re truly on.”

After saying this, Mo stood and hurried out of the room.

Once he was gone, the others just glanced around at each other.

Finally, GuiMing stood up and patted some dust off his robe.

“I have work to do. If the ‘Grand Elder’ is so powerful, he can build his own damn rooms, but there’s no way I’m letting him take control of designing the Fourth Ring’s layout. I need to get my crew on that before he gets any ideas.”

With GuiMing’s departure, the rest of the meeting broke up as well, and everyone headed back to their factions to tell them about the clan’s newest elder.