In the end, Ning ChenKun decided against joining us, and I couldn’t blame him. We weren’t willing to tell him anything about what was really going on, and even if we did, I knew it would be hard to accept. However, before he left, he shared some valuable information.


    According to ChenKun, the advice I had gotten about ascending as a Lord was on point. As long as all the karmic energy I used in the Lord realm was purchased using points earned through managing a city, I would be allowed to remain a core disciple even if I didn’t gain a King-level stewardship. If I reached Peak Lord through managing NanLu City, no matter how I did it, we would have the opportunity to purchase Emperor-level karmic energy and head to the Summit.


    Another valuable insight he shared related to the path to Heaven City. A core disciple leader was required, but we didn’t need a full group of sixteen Emperors like ChenKun had assembled last time. I would be able to walk the path with only five subordinates. Each subordinate could take two attendants with them, but this wasn’t mandatory.


    Of course, he also mentioned that larger groups were supposed to better show off a leader''s capabilities. Someone who could gather fifteen Emperors under them was more impressive than someone who could only gather five. However, since this wasn’t an actual requirement, we wouldn’t need to struggle to fill those extra spots.


    After ChenKun departed, I gathered the group back up and explained my plan. We weren’t going to worry about what was expected of us. We would work as hard as we could as fast as we could to transform this city as much as we could, and I personally would fund all of it through selling Perfect Rank 4 pills.


    <hr>


    With this new strategy in place, I traveled to the Lightning Peak and submitted a mission request.


    I needed stone. I could try to work the sandstone, or I could try to build solid defenses without a wall to support them, but if I was going to allow myself to spend my personal wealth on this city, then I was going to do it right.


    My first impulse was to imitate what I had seen before and construct a rhyolite wall, but I could do better. While I was only a Martial Grandmaster, I was also a Formation Emperor and had a peak four-star earth affinity.


    Sorting through a few possibilities, I decided to place an order for two stones. Kyanrolite and ziethanite.


    Kyanrolite was a heavy stone used in certain Rank 4 formations. It was good at conducting qi and would be able to mesh well with a defensive formation. It also wasn’t rare, so purchasing enough to build an entire city wall was well within the realm of the possible. The downside was that kyanrolite wouldn’t provide much of a defense against earth or wood cultivators. Its qi conductivity meant that such cultivators would have no difficulty boring large tunnels straight through it.


    My solution to this problem was ziethanite. It was a rarely used mineral best suited for Rank 5 formations. However, it was typically only found in powder form, and even with a King’s will-lock, it was difficult to work with unless one had a peak four-star affinity. So, while it was a Rank 5 mineral, purchasing it on a budget generated from Rank 4 pills was still possible.


    With my current power, I wouldn’t be able to construct any formations with ziethanite, but that wasn’t the plan. I was going to construct the walls and formations from kyanrolite and then cover everything with a dusting of ziethanite. No Grandmaster would ever be able to break through such a barrier. Most Lords wouldn’t even be able to do so.


    Since I was purchasing all these high-Rank materials, the cost of constructing my wall was enough to beggar most Lords, but that didn’t stop me. I had plenty of resources in my storage space to fund the initial phase of construction, and by either advancing to Lord or increasing my remaining basic affinities to peak five-star, I would have as many Perfect Rank 4 pills as I could sell.


    <hr>


    A couple of days after starting this new approach, after initial purchase orders were placed but before any real changes had started, Yan called everyone to the manor’s main hall. Cai XiaoYu and Jin ZiHan had finally arrived, and we needed to be there to welcome them.


    When I arrived, I noticed strange looks passing between Yan and JiaQi, but I wasn’t sure what it was about. I expected the two new girls to be there with the group when I arrived, but they were strangely absent.


    Before anything else, Yan wagged his finger around the room, asking for the anti-eavesdropping formation to be activated. Once it was, JiaQi turned to me with a funny look.


    “Fang, what can you tell us about blessings? Have you seen them… change?”


    I nodded. “Back in the Wastes, there was someone who was initially given a lightning blessing. Later it changed to ice and then to fire. The Earthly Dao messes with such things. Why?”


    JiaQi looked like she wanted to laugh. “Well, you see, XiaoYu and ZiHan have had their blessings… altered. If the all-powerful Earthly Dao did this intentionally, I would be interested to hear his purpose in doing so.”


    A spike of fear shot through me. “What happened?”


    Just then, the door of the hall opened, and two young women walked inside. Except for their hairstyles, they both looked nearly identical. They had flawless white jade skin, and there was not even a hint of any scratch or imperfection to mar their beauty. Their skin was so smooth that an ethereal glow radiated from their bodies, making them both look like fairies descended from the heavens.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    As the others greeted them, I just stared at the two girls for a long time before recognition sunk in.


    “Cai XiaoYu? Jin ZiHan?”


    Once I was able to see past their beauty, I sensed deep discontent from both girls, but while Cai XiaoYu was simply annoyed, Jin ZiHan was furious. When she entered, she headed straight for JiaQi and had a quick conversation with her. This discussion ended in screaming.


    “You’re saying the Earthly Dao did this intentionally? First, it gives me a worthless mathematics blessing. Now it’s a damn beauty blessing? Why won’t it just give me something normal?”


    A… beauty blessing? Was that right? Why would it do that?


    I returned to staring at the two girls, but I no longer paid attention to their looks. I was analyzing them in energy vision.


    If only one of them had been given a ‘beauty blessing,’ I might have chalked it up to the Earthly Dao doing some kind of strange test. But both? There had to be something deeper going on.


    I cleared my throat to get their attention.


    “You said this is a ‘beauty blessing.’ Is that all it is? Does it affect you in any other way?”


    “No.” Jin ZiHan nearly growled at me. “All it does is enhance our skin.”


    I furrowed my brow. “What about protection? Does it make your skin harder to cut? Does it bruise less easily?”


    Cai XiaoYu stepped forward to answer the questions in a more even tone.


    “Yes, maybe. If you’re only considering mortal weapons and when our bodies aren’t enhanced with qi, then it might help, but as a cultivator, that’s meaningless. A Rank 1 refined dagger will still cut us easily enough, and even the simplest qi shielding will provide more ‘protection’ than this blessing gives us.”


    I nodded at her. “Thank you.”


    Her words helped me paint a better picture of what was going on, but I didn’t want to share my thoughts with the group. I couldn’t help but feel the Earthly Dao was using the girls’ blessings as a back door to send me free information while bypassing the limitations of the System. If that were the case, I didn’t think it was something that should be advertised. I was irrationally afraid that even speaking my thoughts aloud might be enough to pull the attention of one of the higher beings who was supposed to be keeping the Earthly Dao in check.


    So, instead of letting the group linger on thoughts of the girls’ blessings, I redirected the meeting. We had work to get done.


    As previously planned, Cai XiaoYu was assigned the position of Minister of Justice, and Jin ZiHan was given the position of Minister of Revenue. She no longer had the mathematics blessing, but she knew enough to get the job done.


    This still left open the position of Minister of Rites, but I no longer considered that position important. We didn’t need someone trying to guess what the clan leaders felt was important. We were going to break the rules and see what happened.


    Once the meeting was over and everyone knew what they were doing, the group separated and headed out the door.


    As they left, I gave one last long look at Cai XiaoYu and Jin ZiHan. Their blessings were important. I didn’t feel as if I could do anything with that knowledge yet, but I would pay attention to them as they grew and try to learn what the Earthly Dao was telling me.


    <hr>


    As the sect-appointed steward of NanLu City and not a true city lord, I didn’t receive any karmic energy from the city directly. Instead, the karmic energy was somehow absorbed by the sect, and I received contribution points in return.


    When I went to the temple to check on my progress, I was shocked to find that without having made any real changes to the city, I had already earned enough points to purchase the energy I needed to advance Lord. Simply appointing my friends and allies to their current positions and directing them on how we would proceed was enough for a large initial burst of energy and points.


    Not willing to delay my progress, I purchased the energy I needed and returned to the city. After informing everyone of the situation and sending JiaQi, LiTing, Yan, and Meng LuYao off to purchase their own portions of karmic energy, I secluded myself and broke through to Martial Lord.


    After less than a week, everyone was able to complete their breakthroughs, so we met in the main hall, and Yan made a suggestion on how to proceed.


    “Since we’ve all broken through, I think it would be best if we made the trip to Profound City before kicking the hornet’s nest here. Once we get to work, we can expect to have a lot of trouble from our neighbors until everything is secure, so it would be better to make that journey first.”


    I nodded. “I’ll travel with JiaQi on the Path of Soul. If she needs to spend time cultivating, it might take us a couple of months, but we’ll be back out as soon as possible. You three should take the Path of Mind. That will let us regroup and walk the Path of Body together.”


    No one had any major complaints, but Jin ZiHan and Cai XiaoYu were worried about keeping the city together in our absence, so I left them a primed and ready-to-go Rank 6 defensive formation. If they ran into any trouble they couldn’t handle, they would be able to retreat to the city lord’s manor and activate the formation. It would be able to protect them indefinitely from anyone up to a Peak Lord.


    If anyone more powerful than that tried to attack, LuLu would make sure they never even saw the city.


    <hr>


    Walking the Path of Soul didn’t take as long as I had feared. Since JiaQi knew it was going to be a problem, she had been preparing for the journey from the beginning of the reset. I wasn’t entirely sure how she was feeding her growing soul, but she knew more than enough to do it the right way.


    We still stopped in the fourth area for a few weeks just to be safe, but in less than a month, we reached the final stone arch on the path. When I stepped through, I was transported to an identical-looking area with an elderly man sitting behind a desk.


    The elder flipped through a few pages before looking up at me.


    “Disciple Su Fang, you have earned your initial karmic energy as a Lord through points generated by your domain. This is commendable. You have also demonstrated talents in soul cultivation, alchemy, and martial arts. This is all very good.”


    He placed the stack of papers down on his desk and looked me square in the eye.


    “However, you are a member of the Lightning Peak. You do not cultivate lightning qi, and you have demonstrated no proficiency with talismans. As such, the Master of the Lightning Peak has requested for you to be dropped to the level of ungraded inner sect disciple. After careful consideration, and in light of your achievements to date, the peak’s elders have chosen to reduce your position to only grade 3 inner sect disciple. If you wish to regain your position as a core disciple, you may do so through the Exam at the end of the year.”


    The elder didn’t wait for me to respond. He waved a hand and exchanged the jade token on my waist for one with the symbol of an inner sect disciple.


    “Study talismans well. The elders expect you to make a quick return to the ranks of the core disciples.”