I reappeared in my dormitory. The moments leading up to my death had been hectic, so I sat down and took some time to process them.


    The Ning Clan had contacted Emperor Li and told him about our arrangement. Whether that contact had been made out of suspicion or gratitude, it had resulted in the Emperor showing up in front of me in a rather foul mood. His appearance was something I should’ve planned for, and I could do better next time, but what had me worried was his timing.


    He appeared right as I was getting ready to trigger a reset on my own.


    This precise timing could be explained by his blessing. I wasn’t aware of its specifics, but I knew it had something to do with timing. If the Emperor’s blessing dictated when he appeared, that might mean that I didn’t need to worry too much about him appearing unexpectedly to cause me problems, but it also meant he may have known about my existence for a long time.


    For all I knew, even though he credited ‘Elder Ning,’ he might have already been informed about my use of his token years earlier. In that case, I wouldn’t be able to avoid his scrutiny even if I didn’t work with the Ning Clan.


    Should I try walking the same path again? It would be dangerous, but it would also be rewarding. As long as events played out in a similar way, I would be safe.


    Still, the only reason that was the case was because of my space affinity. That thought made me want to upgrade it further, but I was also afraid of the side effects. If it just knocked me out, I could work with that. Even if it was for more than a couple of days, I could manage the situation. But if increasing my space affinity to higher levels led to more serious issues, I could be in real trouble.


    Before increasing it, I wanted to first remove the spatial fire seed from my soul to try and avoid any negative effects. That should wait until I returned to at least Martial Lord, though, since I would want to have a Ruler’s will-lock ability before experimenting with spirit fire seeds.


    After noting this down as a future task, I allowed myself to focus on moving forward.


    There were two weeks until the end of my Disciple-level classes, and I had a few library tokens to spend in the meantime. I could save them, but I didn’t see any real reason to wait. I would need to get into the Rank 2 martial earth technique room to prepare for classes anyway.


    But before that…


    “System, establish a new secondary reset point for me.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 35,840 credits. 2,006,831,805 credits remaining.


    <hr>


    It was late in the day when I arrived at the library. The librarian gave me a bit of a sour look, but he didn’t say anything and allowed me to enter.


    I didn’t spend much time looking around. I went directly to the Rank 2 martial earth technique room and copied everything inside as I had done previously. I noticed a few more Earth-Rank techniques than there had been in the lower-level room, but I settled on taking away the Mountain Destroying Fist.


    At a glance, I could see that it was simply an alteration to the Rank 1 technique I already had which would allow it to work better with a Master’s meridians. I could’ve chosen an entirely new technique to use, but relying on what I already knew seemed like the sensible path to take.


    Of course, since I copied all the scrolls into my mental library, I didn’t have to completely limit myself to this one technique. This choice was just about which one I would be allowed to openly display.


    Making an allowance for future contingencies, I decided not to use my remaining two Rank 1 tokens and quickly left after retrieving the Rank 2 scroll.


    I considered going to Yan’s room at this point, but my mental state was still a bit off. I might not be able to play the role of the boy he had talked to earlier that day convincingly, so I decided to just see what would happen in class the next day.


    <hr>


    In the morning, Instructor Sun greeted us with his usual stoic demeanor.


    “The techniques you all picked up yesterday should benefit you over your next few years of study. However, they are not what you will be using for the remainder of your time in this class.”


    He reached into the storage and pulled out several small books. “These are basic Low-Yellow Rank 2s. Use them as references and cultivate as quickly as you are able. To qualify for the Master-level courses, you must be a Martial Master. These techniques will allow you to accomplish that. The higher the stage you reach before admissions, the more resources you will be granted to help you advance further.”


    Stolen story; please report.


    He looked around at all of us but gave me a particularly poignant look. “You may help each other through this process. This is not training. This is a test to see how well you are able to cultivate. If you spend time helping your classmates, they will receive more benefits. If you spend that time on yourself instead, you will receive more.”


    He turned to leave us alone in the classroom, but I spoke up to stop him.


    “Instructor Sun, can you please clarify? Is there anything this is testing other than the speed at which we advance through the Master realm? As long as we reach as high as possible, it will be considered a success, correct? There are no other hidden conditions?”


    He narrowed his eyes at me. “There are no hidden conditions. This test is only about your ability to understand a new Master-level technique and cultivate it quickly. You must use the technique you were given, and you are not allowed to use outside resources. If you want to use formations, you have to make them yourselves. If you want pills, make them yourselves.”


    I nodded. “Thank you, instructor.”


    After Sun left, I turned to look at Zhuge Yan.


    “Should I do everything possible?”


    His face turned contemplative. “The instructor indicated that you could. It’s not clear if you should though. If helping us hurts your own advancement, those losses might outweigh any gains the rest of us get from it.”


    “Don’t worry about that.” I smiled at him and turned to the others. “Has everyone begun practicing forming meridians?”


    We hadn’t had any classes on the topic yet, but we all knew what was coming. I expected everyone would have at least attempted it.


    “No,” said JiaQi. “I didn’t have a Rank 2 manual.”


    YuLong shrugged. “Me neither. Didn’t see the point of jumping ahead of what they were teaching us. Wasn’t that supposed to corrupt our foundation or something?”


    That would make things difficult, but fortunately, LiTing and Yan at least had the basic skills down.


    “Alright, you all start studying your techniques. I’ll get things prepared.”


    Turning away, I pretended to reach into my storage bag while taking out several small limestone squares from my storage space. Since I had the extra room, I had stored a few formation supplies just in case, but I hadn’t expected to need them so soon.


    Limestone was more resistant to qi than granite or sandstone, so it made for a solid base for Rank 2 formations.


    My grasp of Rank 2 formation knowledge was somewhat lacking when compared to where my Rank 1 knowledge now was, but during my time spent with the Hu Clan, we had covered the basics. Rank 2 Qi Gathering Formations were pretty basic.


    Using the Cold Mountain Fire, I began carving the complex lines necessary for the formation. This wasn’t too much different from the Rank 1 version. What mainly set it apart were additional qi vortices to increase energy flow and a stronger barrier to contain all the extra energy. To accomplish this, limestone was needed because the increased energy flow would cause something like granite to just break apart.


    Without meridians to transfer energy around my body easily, supplying enough qi to the Cold Mountain Fire to carve out the entire formation was difficult. Instead of guiding everything through my right hand, I had to constantly switch between different body parts to access further qi reserves.


    Once it was complete, I activated the formation and stepped inside.


    My qi was quickly replenished, and I started studying the technique I had been given. The meridians it formed wouldn’t align with my natural qi flows, which bothered me, but that was probably part of the lesson. Even though we were told this was only a test, I didn’t doubt there would still be some lesson involved.


    Sitting there, I did a bit of mental math. Last life, I was able to hit Martial Master Peak in a year and a half using a Peak-Yellow technique. How much would using a Low-Yellow technique shorten that gap? Could I reach the peak in four months? Five?


    In any case, reaching Peak Master in only two weeks was out of the question if I strictly followed the cultivation technique’s guidance.


    I held out my hand and started crafting practice meridians.


    Meridians were made of several strands of qi braided together to form tubes. The braid pattern and the structure of the strands were what separated a Low-Yellow technique from a Peak-Yellow. We were supposed to follow the technique given to us, but how closely did we have to ‘follow’ it?


    I began stretching out the weave pattern and thinning the strands of qi. When the strands were nearly as fine as gossamer, they snapped. Working again, I stretched the strands back out and wove them as loosely as I possibly could.


    Looking at my work, I knew it wouldn’t be able to hold even the slightest bit of energy. If I tried to channel qi through meridians like this, they would leak like a sieve, and if I kept pushing, they would quickly shred to pieces. That was fine. I would still technically be a Martial Master. I wasn’t sure if even my System would recognize such an advancement, but this would meet the basic definition of having formed two meridians.


    I began cultivating for advancement, and in only an hour, both of my torso meridians were complete, and I advanced to what could charitably be called Martial Master 1.


    I spent another eight hours cultivating and reached Martial Master Peak. At least, I called it Peak Master. I had all twelve meridians in my body. They were unusable, but they did exist.


    With my advancement complete, I returned to the others. They were still working diligently at practicing this new technique so that they wouldn’t mess it up.


    “Alright,” I said, looking at them. “I’ve advanced to Peak Master. Now, we just need to get you all there too.”


    They looked at me in shock as I explained the plan.


    “You do realize that Instructor Sun didn’t promise us pills to purge this cultivation, right?” asked Shi YuLong warily. “What if he doesn’t give us one after this test is over?”


    I grinned. “That’s the best part. Because of how little qi is bound up in these meridians, and how loose the weave is, you will be able to disperse them easily. Don’t expect purging pills in the future. They are mostly for removing impurities. For removing meridians, you will have to slowly pick apart the weave yourself. Using such flimsy meridians will only make the process easier.”


    While I wasn’t able to directly create meridians for the others, these pseudo-meridians didn’t take much time or practice to master. YuLong took the longest, but we were all able to create a full set of twelve meridians days before our two weeks were over.