In the brief time I had before the sect’s Entrance Exam, I quickly raised my cultivation level as much as I reasonably could, reaching Martial Grandmaster 4. I wasn’t able to catch up to my friends, but I did close the gap.


    Knowing the sect held potential dangers, we discussed waiting until Peak Grandmaster before entering, but we also needed access to essence to start raising our affinities. While this would involve some risk, it was minor. We were confident in our ability to handle it.


    We got in line for the Exam on the first day and slowly made our way to the front of the line. After taking the test, we would all be separated and sent to our own peaks, but we arranged to meet up near the Gateway Plaza once the formalities were all taken care of.


    Only one person could enter the Exam every five minutes, so I hung back to let my friends go first. When I entered, there were half a dozen scribes sitting at a long table to my left, and the door leading to the teleportation gate was to my right.


    I walked up to the table and the head scribe addressed me. He seemed a bit more excited than I was used to.


    “Name?”


    “Su Fang.”


    “Age?”


    “24.”


    “Blessing?”


    “It has a few nuances, but it has helped me learn a few professions, notably talisman artistry.”


    The scribe raised an eyebrow at that, possibly linking me to my friends who had just come through and who also had comprehension blessings. After noting everything down, he pointed to an affinity-testing orb.


    I placed my hand on the orb and channeled my qi into it like normal. Unlike in the past, where there had been nothing but a mix of chaotic lines, this time, a bright auburn-colored stone appeared in the orb.


    The scribe looked shocked. He wordlessly, haltingly held forth a hand and tapped the orb. As he did, I paid close attention to the way qi left his body and interacted with the orb. Memorizing the technique as best I could for later use.


    The orb transformed, and all nine of my elemental affinities were revealed. Four-star earth, five-star in the other basic elements, seven-star in the secondary elements. I’m not sure the scribe even noticed the static caused by my karmic and space affinities. He could only wordlessly wave for me to enter the Exam portal.


    As I walked that way, I made my customary purchase.


    “System, I want a scheduled mental reversion so that when I leave the Exam, my mind is restored to its previous state.”


    Purchase confirmed. Cost 1 million credits. 639,543,100,650 credits remaining.


    I stepped through the gateway.


    <hr>


    I stepped out of the Exam and looked around, confused.


    Where was everyone?


    I had reentered the same room, but the six scribes had been reduced to only three. The head scribe who had recorded my information earlier remained at the desk, but only two of his assistants remained beside him.


    They were each busy writing furious reports and didn’t even seem to notice when I stepped into the room.


    “Uh… Hello?”


    The head scribe’s head shot up, then he waved at one of his associates.


    “Go, go. Get his report.”


    One of the assistants stood and ran to the side of the archway. He placed a jade stone on it and brought it back to the head scribe who placed it on a formation place to reveal my results. When they appeared, all of the scribes froze.


    “Another one.”


    The head scribe took a deep breath and looked at me.


    “Welcome to the Nine Rivers Sect, Disciple Su Fang. Based on your results… I want to congratulate you on your results. You may choose to enter the sect as a grade 3 core disciple of the Earth Peak, Fire Peak, or Lightning Peak. Which would you prefer?”


    I smiled and bowed my head slightly. “Lightning.”


    The head scribe snapped a finger at an assistant.


    “Take Core Disciple Su Fang to the Lightning Peak.”


    The assistant gave two deep bows, first to the head scribe, second to me.


    “Please follow me.”


    <hr>


    As I walked with the scribe through the portal to the gates of Mortal City, he explained some of the basics of the sect that I was already familiar with. Not needing to hear them again, I changed the topic of our conversation.


    “Senior, I was given a place as a core disciple, right? Is there any way I can lose this position? Might it be stripped from me in the future?”


    “Please, just call me Brother Kun.” This first response was instant, but he was hesitant to answer my actual question. “As for the rules of a core disciple, I should not speak on them…”


    I smiled, reached into my storage space, and pulled out a handful of pill bottles. The scribe was a low-level Lord. These could help him tremendously.


    “Of course, Brother Kun. I understand. Please accept these as recompense for even asking. It’s just a shame that I don’t know what is expected of me.”


    He wanted to refuse, but when he saw what was in the pill bottles, his refusal froze on his lips.


    “Right… right… that is a shame.”


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    He hurriedly grabbed the bottles and stuffed them into a storage bag.


    We continued in silence before he spoke up once more.


    “Brother Su… Did you know that core disciples are considered the future leaders of the sect? They have the potential to become important elders. It’s… It’s regrettable that many of them do not fulfill their potential as leaders. It would be best if they were to do so the moment they stepped into Yellow City, but so few know that it''s an option.”


    I grinned. “Yes, that sounds terrible. But I guess the sect has prohibitions against giving advice to that effect.”


    The scribe nodded slowly. “Yes, for example, we are not allowed to advise anyone that they should attempt to earn all of the contribution points used to purchase karmic energy through… leadership activities.”


    I reached into my storage space and pulled out a few extra pill bottles.


    “I’m sorry things are so hard on you. I hope these will soothe your mind.”


    <hr>


    As we walked, I quickly flipped through my mental journal to check if I had left any notes on important occurrences in the Exam. There wasn’t much, but there was something.


    No torture. Just hard physical labor.


    Was the difference due to my cultivation level? Was it something else? Also, why was I only marked as a core disciple and not a ‘chosen’ disciple? Was it all related?


    I had three clues to work with. The torture, my experience on the Path of the True Chosen, and the physical labor. That suggested they cared about my physical body, but why? I felt like I was missing more than half the puzzle. The only possibility that immediately came to mind was that they were looking for strong bodies to possess, but that didn’t feel like the right answer to me.


    The way the sect selects Grandmaster chosen… This should only be Grandmaster-level information, right? It might be a secret, but it wasn’t a secret of the universe, was it? The ‘value’ of information was a lot harder to judge than items, but I might get lucky here.


    “System, how much for a detailed explanation of why I wasn’t selected as a chosen disciple?”


    Cost 50 trillion credits.


    That gave me another data point. Knowing the information now would change karma and destiny in a way that was within the means of a Sovereign. I didn’t know what it meant, but it was an extra data point.


    I needed to consider this further, but for the moment, my time was up. We had reached the Gateway Plaza and were about to enter the Lightning Peak.


    <hr>


    In general appearance, the Lightning Peak didn’t seem too different from the Earth Peak. The mountain itself was a large rock of barren stone, and barely anything grew in the surrounding landscape. However, where the Earth Peak looked like virgin stone recently raised from the depths of the earth, the Lightning Peak was a blasted landscape of charred, pockmarked dirt.


    Before I arrived, I had imagined a thick black storm cloud circling around the peak, but instead, the sky was blue and cheery. When I looked around in energy vision, I got a better sense of why that was.


    Clouds would have denoted water qi was present. It wasn’t. Around the crown of the mountain was only pure lightning qi. As I watched, more and more lightning qi gathered from the surrounding environment. When it reached a tipping point, the qi coalesced into a bolt of lightning and struck the ground with heaven’s fury. This dissipated the lightning qi around the mountain, but even as it struck, qi was already building up around the peak for another strike.


    These random lightning strikes caused my guide to become flustered as he led me into a nearby administration building.


    Inside, there was only a middle-aged woman sitting primly behind a desk doing paperwork.


    My guide cleared his throat. “Allow me to introduce you to Su Fang. A new grade 3 core disciple of the Lightning Peak. Please get him situated right away.”


    At first, the woman looked upset at the interruption, but when she processed the words, her eyes widened, and she smiled at me.


    “Of course, of course. Welcome, Senior Brother Su. It is my honor to introduce you to the Lightning Peak.”


    I held up a hand to stop her.


    “Thank you. I only need my identity jade and to be registered.”


    My guide looked sheepish and fished about in his robe before taking out a jade badge and handing it to me. As soon as I had it, I passed it to the receptionist.


    “Right, of course. Right away.” She moved and placed it on a formation plate. “But Senior Brother Su, we would like to welcome you to the peak properly. Please, let me show you around.”


    I waved her off, not caring that I might offend a petty Lord in the process. I wasn’t here to make new connections, and I wasn’t worried about low-level Lords who had to focus their energies on recruiting new sect members. I was here to repay my debt to the Master of the Lightning Peak. What did the opinion of a Lord count as when weighed against an Emperor?


    As soon as my jade was processed, I took it back and left the peak. I needed to meet back up with my friends, but there was something else I needed to take care of first.


    I pulled out the coin Jin had given me and walked through the portal to the Metal Peak.


    On the other side, I spent several moments examining the giant mountain that looked to be made from pure steel, but it wasn’t too long before I was interrupted.


    “Who are you?”


    Jin was staring at me with narrowed eyes.


    I held up her coin. “We need to talk privately.”


    She smirked. “Follow me, kid.”


    She took me back through the portal and into the same conference room we had used previously. After she tapped on the formation to seal the room, she addressed me once more.


    “Alright, talk.”


    I reached into my storage space, withdrew the box with her orb, placed it on the table, and opened the lid.


    “I assume you know what this is?”


    Her expression became unreadable. “Of course I know what a memory orb is. Explain.”


    I placed her coin next to the box. “I am here to deliver this orb to you. It contains… valuable information.”


    She carefully examined the box from afar, and when she was convinced that it was safe, she reached out with qi and slid it closer before picking up the orb directly. If I had an activation of Memory Implantation that worked on an Emperor, I might have wanted to use it at that point, but sadly, I didn’t.


    “What is your role in this? Are you just a delivery boy or are you looking to get something from me?”


    I put on the best granite expression I could. “Everything is explained in the orb.”


    She placed it back into the box and looked at me. “Fine, you may leave now. If there are no problems with the information contained within, you will receive appropriate compensation for your services.”


    “That… That’s a problem… The information in that orb is sensitive. I cannot leave it with you. I must insist you absorb it now or lose it forever.”


    Jin’s eyebrow raised playfully. “Lose it forever? You think a mere Grandmaster can do such a thing in front of me?”


    I simply nodded.


    “You seem confident. I wonder where that comes from.” Jin’s face remained playful, but her eyes became calculating. “Wait here.”


    She stood and walked from the room.


    A minute later, she walked in with an older man in ragged clothes and threw him to the ground next to the table.


    “Absorb the memories in this orb.”


    The man’s face was full of fear, but he complied. He reached out with his qi and pulled the memories from the orb.


    His eyes went blank.


    When he returned to the present and saw me, his eyes widened. A flash of thoughts and emotions crossed his face as he processed the new information he had access to and tried to find a way to use it to his advantage.


    “Su Fang! Help me! This woman is mad. You can’t trust her. Work with me and I’ll give you whatever you want.”


    I cocked my head to the side as he screamed. Reading his emotions as best I could, I didn’t believe a word he said. More interesting to me was that Jin didn’t seem overly concerned with stopping his rambling.


    “She…” His eyes darted to Jin. “She didn’t absorb the memories. She doesn’t know what you can do, right? That’s good. You can just come back and save me. We can end her without her even knowing what happened!”


    I turned my head to Jin. “When are you going to stop this? You know he can’t leave now.”


    She snorted and threw out a blade of metal qi, ending the man’s life.


    “Interesting enough, it seems.”


    Then, she used a thread of qi to absorb the orb''s memories.


    Once she was done, Jin laughed at me. “We need to figure out a better method for next time. Let me think on that. I’ll tell you later.”


    I nodded, took out Shen’s and Jin ZiHan’s orbs, and slid them to her.


    “I’ll let you take care of these. You can get an audience with Shen easier than I can. What about the Metal Peak Trial?”


    “You’ll need contribution points from missions, same as everyone else. That’s a rule I’m not allowed to bend. Once you’re ready, just come back through the portal and I’ll get you set up.”


    After a few words of parting, I took my leave to go find my friends.