Seven years. That was my deadline.


    While you could become an outer sect disciple even if you were over a hundred years old, it was extremely rare. Almost everyone who did so was younger than thirty. Whenever I talked to someone who chose to become a servant disciple instead of continuing to pursue the outer sect, they told me the reason was because they didn’t make it by age thirty. Their consistent advice was always to push as hard as I could before then, otherwise, I may lose any possibility of progress. So, I had seven years left.


    To become an outer sect disciple, I needed a Martial Master rank cultivation and to be able to make High-Purity Superior pills at above 90% efficacy. Likely, above 95% was needed.


    In the past seven years, my rate of progress had been nowhere near what it would need to be to accomplish this in the next seven. I had to push. I hadn’t spent that time slacking off. I had built a strong foundation to stand upon. Now it was time to use that foundation to build a castle.


    <hr>


    The first thing I did was go to Cao. She was someone I knew I could trust to teach me well. She was a Martial Master who was able to routinely make High-Purity Superior pills now, so her lessons should have been expensive. Most people in her position wouldn’t do any lessons at all because their time was too valuable. I was grateful that she still charged me the base 50 points. I could have paid more, and I would have, but any savings at this stage was a blessing.


    She gave me a list of techniques to learn. The problems I faced were a known quantity to alchemists, so solutions were ready to go. They just needed practice.


    Her big advice was to get all my qi skills up to row four. That was the point I would likely be able to win a Rank 2 cultivation skill. Very few people were capable of doing row five, and after they won once or twice they had no reason to compete again, so I didn’t need to worry about them.


    However, if I wanted any kind of chance at entering the outer sect in the top three, row five was a must. It should just be put behind reaching Martial Master and learning to concoct the most basic Superior pills.


    <hr>


    As I practiced the skills, I ran into a problem.


    While working in Rudy’s shack, I had begun to be able to see qi. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know how. All I knew was that I slowly became able to do so. That qi vision was essential for alchemy though. It was what allowed me to see toxins in the ingredients. It allowed me to see my own qi and use it to attack them.


    After working on row three for a while, I found my qi vision was failing me. My sight wasn’t good enough to see the details I needed to see. I needed an upgrade.


    I could have asked Cao about this, but I didn’t have anything else I cared to know at the moment, so I didn’t bother her. Instead, I decided to go straight to the Technique Hall to see if they could provide any help.


    When I arrived, I didn’t even bother looking for a scroll myself. I went straight to the receptionist to ask about it.


    “Excuse me, are there any techniques here that will make it easier to see qi? Like, when concocting pills. I need something that will help me see the qi and medicinal energy more clearly.”


    “Of course,” he responded, “there are two options for improving your qi vision. We do have an eye technique available. It makes concocting pills a lot more draining, and it isn’t perfect, but it is the most common choice, and it’s the only one you can buy here.”


    He moved to pull out the scroll for the technique he mentioned, showing it to me.


    “This will work, but it won’t improve your underlying ability. You see, the ‘qi vision’ you are probably used to has nothing to do with your qi or cultivation stage. It’s all about the strength of your soul. The stronger your soul, the more clearly you will be able to see qi, get it? So, to make real improvements, you need a soul cultivation technique that will strengthen and solidify the energy of your soul. At higher levels, this is considered a basic necessity for alchemists, but we don’t sell them here.”


    “Why? How do I get it?”


    “You have to win it. Keep your eyes open. Occasionally you might find it as a reward for one of the competitions. You see, soul cultivation is hard to learn, takes a long time, and simply isn’t necessary for what most of you kids are doing. So, instead of letting you burn points on a technique you don’t need, you get it for free, but you have to prove you are an elite that will be able to make good use of it.”


    After thanking the man and leaving, I thought about the new information.


    Soul cultivation sounded like something that was perfect for me. ‘The Earthly Dao’ had told me that my body and mind were reset, but my soul went back in time. If I cultivated my soul, wouldn’t that be a permanent benefit? I thought about it. I was able to see qi when concocting much more clearly than Bao. Why was that? It must have been because I somehow strengthened my soul in the past.


    I rushed back into the Hall to ask another question.


    “Is there a way to strengthen the soul without a cultivation technique?”


    “Yeah, sure,” he said, “when you’re working, it will naturally strengthen your soul over time. Think of your soul as just another muscle. You burn soul energy using qi vision. If you use it too intently, you might even start feeling woozy. This is like your soul has just had a heavy workout. It will take time to recover, but when it does, it will be slightly stronger than before. This takes time though. Soul cultivation is already pretty slow, strengthening your soul through only exercise is painfully slow.”


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    I thanked him again and left.


    I needed to strengthen my soul.


    I had been more than a little blasé about practicing cultivation techniques in the past, relying on my restarts to fix anything that might go wrong with me. Monkeying with my soul was a completely different story though. I wasn’t going to touch something that could permanently cripple me until I completely understood what I was doing.


    Until then, I would focus on strengthening my soul through draining exercise.


    He said it just took time, right? That was the one resource I had in abundance.


    <hr>


    I raised my cultivation to Martial Disciple Peak.


    While doing this, I used only High-Purity Basic pills since I could make them with extremely low amounts of pill toxins. They didn’t have much of an effect, but something was better than nothing. Using better pills would have almost certainly meant more toxins, which would have slowed me down in the end.


    While raising my cultivation, I was still working on my qi skill a little, to keep in practice if nothing else. However, after I hit Martial Disciple Peak, had abundant energy, and was no longer distracted? That was when I began to destroy those cards.


    My qi purity was much higher than almost any other disciple. Waiting until I had the High-Yellow skill mastered to do the majority of my cultivation was a godsend. When I created a knife to cut away parts of those cards, it was like I was passing it through melted butter.


    Before long, I was able to complete row four.


    It had been four years. I had three left.


    <hr>


    Qi skill competitions were not too infrequent. There was roughly one every month, but the number of disciples who competed in them was staggering. The chances of winning were extremely low. You had to be both good and lucky.


    I did not, however, need to win the competition for my goals. Winning the competition awarded up to a High-Yellow Rank 2 cultivation technique. If I competed in the ‘Row 5’ category, the reward could be up to a Peak-Yellow Rank 2 technique.


    This was beyond me. I wasn’t ready to win yet. I just needed a technique in order to keep moving forward. I could improve it in the future.


    My only goal was to impress the elder in charge enough that I got a Low-Yellow Rank 2 technique. That was enough for now.


    The competition was surprisingly straightforward. We went and received three special cards. We just needed to return them by the end of the day. There was no mention of a proctor that would monitor us, just an admonition that we should not turn in the work of others. The sect showed it trusted us, and no one wanted to betray the trust.


    The cards were far more complex than I had seen before. They were all combination challenges. Every card was a test of all qi skills. You had to accurately burn through the mark on the card at a quick speed with a very specific level of energy all while you made sure other parts of the card didn’t heat up at all.


    They were challenging and draining. After I finished the first card, I looked at it and saw several spots I didn’t clean correctly. I couldn’t do anything about it though. The ‘speed’ aspect locked anything else from changing after the time was up.


    I recovered my energy and began the second card. The result was slightly worse. My focus had slipped halfway through and I made a mistake, though not a catastrophic one. At least the card didn’t turn to ash.


    I waited an hour before beginning the final card. I couldn’t make any more mistakes. However, I couldn’t rest for too long. Time was a factor. The third card was the hardest, but having rested and refocused, I was able to complete it to the same level as the first.


    After turning everything in, I sat down to await the results. People had until the end of the day to finish, but the elder didn’t wait that long before beginning to award prizes.


    Unsurprisingly, I did not win the top prize. However, what was a shock was that my performance was good enough for the Mid-Yellow Rank 2 technique. Even with my errors, I guess it was good enough to win through.


    Advancement was getting closer, just a bit more.


    <hr>


    I needed to talk to Cao. I wanted her guidance on becoming a Martial Master.


    Martial Master was all about creating pathways through the body to allow qi to flow.


    According to Cao, everyone’s body had a natural energy flow. Meridians needed to be constructed with that natural flow in mind. If they were put in the wrong place, their efficiency would plummet.


    The first two meridians were in the chest. Everyone had a dantian near the middle of their torso. This was a natural gathering point for qi. It was most noticeable in those who had never cultivated because it was the only place in their body with any qi at all. The first two meridians took energy from the dantian and cycled it through the internal organs of the torso. This brought great strength and vitality, allowing Martial Masters to live to 200 years old.


    Both meridians had to be correctly formed to allow qi to flow. That is why those with only one were considered Half-Step Masters. They had begun the process, but it didn’t mean much until they finished.


    She guided me through some of the processes and pitfalls of creating meridians but warned that she was just a novice at this herself. Also, it was clear that I would have to determine how to build them myself.


    Cao told me what meridians were and what to expect. The cultivation technique told me the instructions and blueprints for creating them. My body told me where to build them.


    The process was tedious, but I was much quicker than the usual person advancing. I used the same strategy I did when I first became a Martial Disciple. Rapid advancement that would destroy my foundation. I would not be advancing to Martial Grandmaster. I might not even make it far into Martial Master like this. I deemed the tradeoff worth it. This was a learning experience. I could do it correctly later.


    All distractions were put to the side. I built up enough contribution points to pay for rent for the next three years, so I didn’t have to think about it. I didn’t worry about making pills for myself. The ones I could make wouldn’t help me anyway. I stopped talking to Bao, and I had no more lessons from Cao.


    After six months I formed my first meridian. It wasn’t much better than a leaky straw. I had high-purity qi and a Mid-Yellow cultivation technique. These both demanded strong meridians. With my three-legged cat of a meridian, I was a paper tiger.


    That didn’t stop me. Six months later I completed my second meridian.


    I was not yet a Martial Master. To truly advance, I had to begin letting qi cycle through the meridians, strengthening my organs.


    I was careful. I only allowed a faint trickle of qi to pass through my meridians. Even then, it felt like they were on the verge of collapse. If that happened, I would, at best, have to start from scratch. At worst, I would be forever unable to advance.


    Infusing my organs lasted three days. The amount of qi I was able to infuse into them was pathetic. The strengthening allowed normal Masters to live to 200, but I guessed I would die no older than 110. I didn’t plan on living forever anyway, though.


    I had two years left. I didn’t stop. Just becoming a Master provided me with very few benefits. I also needed to build the meridian that allowed qi to flow into my right arm. Then I would be able to pull some qi, though not much, from my torso and upper arm into my right hand. I had practice, but this still took another six months. It didn’t matter, I advanced to Martial Master 2.


    I wanted to compete to become an outer disciple at age thirty. I had eighteen months to go before that competition.