I woke up in a carriage, and my first thoughts were of being savaged by a wild dog, but I quickly squashed them. I had work to do.


    My 100-year plan was basically at an end. I was using a technicality in the rules I had created for myself to allow me one last go, but once I started my final life here, that would be that. If I messed up and died, the run would be over. I would need to return to the Wastes and forget about finishing things in the sect until my other tasks were complete.


    I wouldn’t let that happen. I would use the time I had to settle a few debts, use everything I had learned to achieve as much as I could, and take my friends to the Summit of Dragon Peak to see what awaited us there.


    But before any of that, I had to make my final preparations. I wasn’t quite ready to begin that final life.


    <hr>


    When the carriage arrived outside of Yellow Orchid Academy, I begged the driver to wait for my return.


    I rushed inside and applied to join the Academy. When the receptionist tested me and saw that I had a peak four-star earth affinity, as well as all my other affinities, she had a shocked expression on her face, but I didn’t let that delay me.


    “I want to join Instructor Sun’s Disciple cohort. He is a Martial Master under Grandmaster Ning ChenKun.”


    The receptionist gave me a strange look at the direct request.


    “Masters and Grandmasters are allowed to choose their own Disciples. I can put in the request, but they might not accept it.”


    I considered trying to bribe her with a high-Rank pill but desisted. That might only make matters worse.


    “Please do. I only wish to join the Academy if I can do so under Instructor Sun’s guidance.”


    <hr>


    After making my request, I left the Academy and had the carriage driver take me to the Blue Wind Pavilion where I purchased two storage bags. As unfortunate as it was, storage bags were not something I could take back in time with me.


    I filled them both with a large number of gold bars, spirit stones, and assorted pills ranging from Ranks 1 to 5. Then, I walked outside the Pavilion where the carriage driver was waiting for me and handed him one of the bags.


    “Thank you for your assistance.”


    Before he could look inside, I turned and headed to a hotel to await the Academy’s decision.


    I didn’t know if this world would simply reset or not when I died, but either way, I now considered my debt to the driver repaid in full.


    <hr>


    I booked the largest hotel room I could find, and once I was inside with the door locked, I let LuLu out of my storage space. She chuffed at me, but I didn’t understand her meaning.


    “Sorry about this. We’ll see JiaQi tomorrow, alright? Just hang on until then.”


    LuLu circled the room and sat down along the wall furthest from the door.


    I didn’t expect anyone to try to attack me, but having the protection of a Rank 6 demon beast felt pretty good.


    I was glad that she had survived the reset healthy and intact.


    Speaking of… I pulled the two ‘men’ from my storage space. I had drugged them with potent pills to keep them sedated during the reset process, and the younger man was still sleeping soundly, dead to the world.


    His master, on the other hand, was simply dead.


    The older man hadn’t survived the transition. As far as I could tell, his body looked healthy, but at some point during the reset process, he had died.


    I pulled out my journal and jotted down the results.


    People born after the reset are fine, including demon beasts. It appears as if anyone alive before the reset point dies. Unknown if the latter includes demon beasts or not.


    It had been a good test, but now I had two corpses to dispose of.


    <hr>


    The next day, I was notified that I would be allowed into Instructor Sun’s class, so I headed to the Academy directly.


    When I arrived, just like last time, we had a class on learning to control acupoints.


    This time, I did my best to mimic LiTing’s and the others’ progress. Did Instructor Sun buy the act? Was I cultivating too slowly for someone with a four-star affinity? I don’t know. I didn’t care enough to pay him any attention. I was just waiting for the class to be over.


    Once it was, just like last time, Yan invited me for a meal, an invitation which I easily accepted.


    As we were walking to the cafeteria, I checked each of the rooms we passed, and when I found one that was unoccupied, I slowed my steps.


    “Hey, can we go in here and chat for a second? There’s something I want to talk about with all of you.”


    Everyone gave me a strange look. Yan was particularly suspicious, but he nodded slowly.


    Once we were all inside, while the others just looked at me, Yan wanted answers.


    “What is this about?”


    I held up a hand. “One moment.”


    I reached into my storage space and pulled out a Rank 6 defensive formation that would interfere with anyone trying to listen in. Everyone stared at the large slab of bluish stone as I placed it in the middle of the room.


    Even with our cultivation session in the classroom, I didn’t have much qi in my body. All my strength was just barely enough to activate the formation, and that was after I had primed it beforehand so that all I needed to do was apply a small trickle of energy to turn it on.


    When the formation bloomed to life, everyone’s eyes widened in shock.


    Then, I took out the four boxes with their memory orbs.


    “I know you don’t know me, but please trust me. This is important.” I held up LiTing’s orb in front of her and pointed to one of two dots that marred its perfectly white surface. “Inject your qi here, it’s not much different from how you control your energy while cultivating. These are memory orbs that contain essential information that each of you needs to know.”


    LiTing stared at me with her mouth agape. She didn’t reach for the orb.


    Knowing what I had to do, I turned to the most suspicious member of the party.


    “Yan, you need to do this.”


    “I don’t know you. Don’t talk to me so familiarly.”


    I was rushing things. I should have handled this better.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    “Yan, if you want to tear down the Zhu Clan. This is the only way.”


    He looked at me, and I could feel his emotions surging.


    Shi YuLong stepped forward with all the recklessness of a teenager who hadn’t yet learned what this world was capable of.


    “I’ll do it. Let me go first.”


    Before anyone could respond, he picked up the box with his name on it and injected his qi as I had instructed.


    His eyes went blank, and he stared straight ahead at nothing.


    “What did you do to him!” JiaQi’s voice was ferocious.


    I held up a hand. “Please, just wait.”


    In energy vision, I watched as his qi cycled through the orb and returned to him as thin streamers of white lines of energy. They passed into his body, through his acupoints, and into his soul. With his limited qi, the energy had to cycle several times before the memories were fully absorbed.


    Just as JiaQi was about to scream again, YuLong reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder. He looked at me gravely and then turned back to JiaQi.


    “Calm down. Do as he says. Trust me. You need to do this. You’ll understand once you do.”


    He looked at Yan with the gaze of an old monster. “This is what you’ve been hoping for.”


    Yan might not have trusted YuLong completely, but as a faint desperation welled up within him, he reached forward and grabbed his orb. After he absorbed his memories, he gave me a wry smile and then turned to the girls.


    “Absorb the memories. They’re safe. If you trust me at all, you can trust me with this.”


    Finally, the girls relented. First LiTing, then JiaQi.


    Once she was done, JiaQi looked at me in panic.


    “Where’s LuLu?”


    I gave her a comforting smile and pulled the deer from my storage space.


    JiaQi ran forward and hugged her around the neck.


    Yan’s eyes gleamed slightly. “What about the two experiments?”


    “One dead, one… survived the process safely. Right now, the assumption is that anyone born after the reset point will be safe.”


    He nodded at this answer.


    I grabbed everyone’s attention.


    “This is just a layover. Once this conversation is over, I’m going back to the beginning. If we’re going to aim to reach the Summit, it needs to be done cleanly. I can’t have a known attachment to Emperor Li.”


    I motioned to YuLong. “YuLong wants to spend some time with his family. I need to get him his memories before he comes here so that he won’t be a known associate of ours and won’t be pulled into any storms we create. If any of you feel the same way, let me know. If you want, you can spend the next cycle relaxing outside the sect, and I’ll do my best to pick up your memories at the end of it.”


    I looked around at the group, but no one took me up on the offer.


    “Good. Final thing. I need to know the best time and place to contact each of you. I’m going back about a month and a half. I just need to know a time and place that I can expect to find you alone and unguarded.”


    JiaQi cocked her head. “I can see how that’s needed for YuLong, but why us? Just come to the Academy like this again.”


    “Do you want to stay here? Do we have anything to gain from the Academy? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to spend the next four years studying how to be a proper Disciple again.”


    JiaQi chuckled at this. “Fair point. But a month and a half? We’ve been in school for the last month. Before that, I guess I was alone in a carriage on my way here. Anytime then would be fine, but I have no idea where I would have been on any specific day.”


    I nodded. “That’s good enough.”


    As YuLong and LiTing had also been alone in carriages, things became a bit easier than I had first thought. Of course, that was until we got to Yan.


    “I’ve been staying in ChenKun’s South Gate residence ever since I got my blessing two months ago.”


    “That… how are we supposed to get you the memories then?”


    Yan took out a piece of paper and wrote down a sequence of indecipherable characters.


    “Have a courier from the Blue Wind Pavilion deliver this to me. I’ll meet you in the Pavilion at noon the day after I receive it.”


    I nodded and tossed the second spatial bag filled with supplies to LiTing.


    “I don’t know what happens to these timelines when I’m gone. Hang on to that just in case it doesn’t end.”


    Then, I looked at LuLu.


    “Let’s go.”


    I pocketed the deer into my storage space, and after a final glance at my friends, simultaneously grabbed the formation plate and swallowed a poison pill.


    You have died. Calculating…


    You died as a Martial Disciple 2 — 20 credits awarded.


    Total Credits: 1,000,049,200,020


    ...


    <hr>


    I woke up in my tiny apartment in the Su Clan. It had been a long time since I’d been back, but this wasn’t the time to reminisce. I needed to be quick, especially with the first part of the plan.


    “Sys—”


    I stopped myself. I wanted to try something first to see what happened.


    My hut was a little cramped, so I opened my door to give myself more room.


    Reaching into my storage space, I tried to extract LuLu.


    Nothing happened.


    I tried again. I noticed the deer react to my prodding, but I wasn’t able to summon her outside.


    I quickly opened my journal and jotted down the results.


    Cannot take a Rank 6 beast out of my storage space while within Wastes. Worked fine in South Gate City.


    It was a bit of extra information about the Wastes, which was interesting, but I needed to focus. I didn’t want to waste any time I wouldn’t be able to get back.


    “System, I want to purchase two teleports. First, send me to a secluded spot in the wilderness roughly one kilometer south of JiaQi’s location. The exact distance and direction can vary, but it needs to be somewhere in the woods with no one around. Then, when I say the word ‘goodbye,’ teleport me back here.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 7,520 credits. 1,000,049,192,500 credits remaining.


    I appeared in the middle of a forest and immediately took LuLu out of my storage space.


    “I’m going to lock you into this place. JiaQi should be about a kilometer to the north and heading to South Gate City. Okay?”


    The deer dipped her head in acknowledgment.


    “Goodbye.”


    I appeared in my house once more and sat down in the center of the room.


    “System, how much to move my permanent reset point ahead to this moment.”


    Cost 257 billion credits.


    I sucked in a breath. Messing around with pulling a powerful being back through time was costly, but it was the only way to preserve LuLu’s life.


    “Purchase.”


    Purchase confirmed. 743,049,192,500 credits remaining.


    With that, I was able to relax and no longer worry about losing time.


    What came next was going to be… tricky. None of my friends had cultivated yet, so they didn’t have access to qi. That meant they wouldn’t be able to use the memory orbs.


    Without their memories, they wouldn’t trust me. So, what could I do?


    My plan was a bit direct. I would toss an alchemical powder in their faces, knocking them out, and then drag them into my storage space. Then, I could teach them to cultivate and have them absorb the memories. It wasn’t elegant, but it would get the job done.


    “System, tele–”


    Wait.


    A new thought occurred to me.


    “System, how much would it cost for an ability to transfer memories directly from a memory orb into someone’s soul as if they had absorbed it normally? If it makes the ability cheaper, you can make it so that this ability only works with a person’s own memory or only on Martial Disciples. You can also make it so that this ability will only function four times.”


    Processing… Memory Implantation. Limit 4. Cost 4 billion credits.


    Note: This will only allow you to restore a person’s own memories. Ability is only effective on Martial Disciples. Recipient must be in physical contact with a memory orb.


    “How much to make this a permanent ability?”


    Cost 100 billion credits.


    A good option for the future, but for now it was just an unnecessary extra expense.


    “Purchase the limited ability.”


    Purchase confirmed. 739,049,192,500 credits remaining.


    “System, teleport me inside of JiaQi’s carriage.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 3,765 credits. 739,049,188,735 credits remaining.


    I appeared, still kneeling, in the middle of JiaQi’s carriage.


    “What the hell!”


    Her scream startled me, and I jumped onto the seat opposite her.


    She stared at me in fear.


    I didn’t give her or any guards time to react. I pulled out her orb and tossed it to her.


    “Catch.”


    Reflexively, she moved her hands and grabbed it. The moment she did, I activated the Memory Implantation ability.


    Instead of her own qi entering the orb, energy from the environment coalesced and poured into it. A fraction of a second later, it exited the orb and poured into JiaQi’s soul.


    She stared at me blankly for several moments. As she did, I grabbed the orb and placed it back into my storage space. After only about five seconds, her eyes widened in shock.


    “You’re an ass!”


    I gave her a quick smile. “I’ll leave a message for you at the Blue Wind Pavilion after I secure a residence.”


    Then, I subvocalized so she couldn’t hear me.


    “System, teleport me inside of LiTing’s carriage.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 13,825 credits. 739,049,174,910 credits remaining.


    As I was already sitting down, I appeared seated directly across from her.


    I didn’t even pause. I just tossed her the orb and activated my ability before she could understand what was happening.


    Once her eyes regained focus, she gave me a strange look, but I couldn’t stick around. I just grabbed the orb and continued onward.


    “Check the Blue Wind Pavilion for a message.”


    She nodded, and I set off once more.


    “System, teleport me inside of YuLong’s carriage.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 5,260 credits. 739,049,169,650 credits remaining.


    Quick as I could, I tossed him the orb and activated it. As a scion of an empire, he might have guards paying closer attention to the carriage.


    When his eyes regained clarity, we nodded at each other shortly, I grabbed his orb, and then I vanished once more.


    “System, teleport me to a secluded spot in South Gate City.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 1,240 credits. 739,049,168,410 credits remaining.