After returning to my small house, I sat down to wait. I wasn’t sure exactly how long my conversations with the Earthly Dao, my leadership council, and the Revered Elders had taken, but I knew that I wouldn’t have to wait long.
So, I just sat and thought through my plans.
The grand formation under Rosehill had been formed from four concentric rings. The outermost ring was a Rank 4 formation, and the innermost ring was a Rank 7 formation. The details of the Rank 7 formation had been hidden from me, but I had recorded the Rank 4 formation down in my journal, and I had been studying it off and on for several years now. I didn’t understand it completely, but I had a fairly good idea of what its purpose was.
The Rank 4 formation was blocking Lords from entering the Wastes. Only Lords. It wasn’t powerful enough to affect any higher-level cultivators. I wasn’t entirely sure if the inner formations would serve as backups, but I felt rather confident that if I could destroy that outermost ring, then people in the Wastes would be allowed to ascend to Martial Lord. From there, with each successive ring destroyed, Kings, Emperors, and Sovereigns would be allowed as well.
This last part was nothing but a mere supposition, but it made sense to me. It felt like this was the intention of the person who had originally constructed the formation.
From what I had seen, there were five locations in the Wastes that contained formations. I had already seen the one under Rosehill, and the locations of the ones under Mount Jiang and the Verdant Fields Sect were rather obvious. As for the one under the Twin Mountains Sect, it was almost certainly under one of the mountains.
That just left the formation under the Su Clan.
I had no idea where this last formation might be hiding. My guess was that it would contain a fire seed that produced copious amounts of metal and wood, but Dragon Gate City was surrounded by forested mountains. The formation could be hiding anywhere.
I had a clue, though. Small patches of herbs had been growing around the Rosehill formation. One of those herbs had been the Metal Dragon’s Tongue Fruit, and the Su Clan had been able to produce an Earth Dragon’s Tongue Fruit. This suggested they knew where the formation was located. I just needed to extract that information from them.
There were several ways I could have gone about this. For example, I could have pulled all the Grandmasters out of my inner world and had them storm the Su Clan for me. However, this would have drawn the attention of the forces surrounding the Wastes, and while I was confident that we would be able to hold our own against them, such a fight would inevitably attract the attention of even more powerful forces.
So, while I could try storming the Su Clan and taking what I wanted by force, I decided to approach the situation from a different direction. I would take over the Su Clan from within. Then, with Bao, Cao, and SuYin controlling the Verdant Fields Sect and the Twin Mountains Sect, we would have complete control of the Wastes. Ideally, this would all be done without any outside interference.
Once these conquests were complete, we could work on slowly building up an empire capable of rivaling anyone on the continent.
These were big plans, but I could only take them one step at a time.
As I thought about this, the ‘first step’ finally arrived. A middle-aged man dressed in dark brown robes opened my door and ushered me outside. It was time to have my affinities tested.
I walked in front of the elder at the affinity testing orb, and he gave me his normal smile of false pleasantness.
“What is your name?”
“Su Fang.”
“Place your hand on the orb and channel your qi into it.”
I casually lifted my right hand and did as ordered.
Thanks to all the interactions I’d had with the Su Clan over the years, I had a fairly good understanding of how the clan chose its ‘elites.’ It wasn’t skills, affinities, or blessings that the elders cared about—it was a person’s background. As a poor orphan from a distant branch family, the odds that I would be chosen to become an elite were nearly zero. So, if I wanted to catch the elder’s attention, I had to shine more brightly than anyone else.
As I channeled what little qi I had into the orb, I deftly manipulated my acupoints to alter the affinities that the orb would display.
At first, the orb showed nothing but a kaleidoscope of rainbow lines, but just as the elder was about to signal me to stop, I shifted my mental grip on my acupoint.
Suddenly, a dull copper ingot appeared in the middle of the orb, and the elder’s eyes widened in shock. When that ingot brightened not once, but twice, he took a step back. When the ingot brightened a third time and then dimmed to a dull bronze, he froze stock still. When it then proceeded to brighten not once, but twice more, he stopped breathing.
At this point, my qi was completely depleted, and my connection with the orb broke, so I dropped my hand to the side.
The elder took several seconds to compose himself.
“Me… Metal affinity. High… High… six-star…”
The elder seemed a bit too agitated. Had I gone too far?
The elder turned and looked at YuanFei, who was sitting at the back of the room. YuanFei had a look of deep interest on his face, but he didn’t speak. He just waved for the elder to continue.
The servant who had been somewhat haughty and disrespectful earlier had completely changed. After witnessing both my affinity test and the elder’s reaction to it, he had become far more obsequious as he guided me to my new home.
As we walked through the compound, he did his best to offer explanations for each door we passed.
“We are in the Training Quarter. Here, you will find facilities that can help you improve both your martial arts and your skill with cultivation.” He gestured to the side. “This door leads to one of the private practice yards the elite disciples use for training their combat skills.”
I raised my chin in acceptance of the answer, and we continued walking forward.
My guide showed me several more training yards, a library, a few areas for learning formations, and various other training-related buildings. While I had spent a lot of time in this compound, it had been several decades since I was last here, and even then, I didn’t spend much time wandering around the place, so I was appreciative of the guided tour.
Eventually, we reached a crossroads where a wide boulevard cut through the street that we had been walking down.
The servant gestured to our right. “That is the path to the complex’s front gate. The buildings there are for entertaining guests.”
He gestured to our left. “That path leads to the residences of the compound's leaders. They are the seniors whom you just met—the ones overseeing the testing of new disciples. Sitting at the back of the room was Elder Su YuanFei, the eldest son of the patriarch. The senior next to the orb was Elder Su HuaLong, the Second Elder.”
I couldn’t help but smile at this. I didn’t have much of an impression of Su HuaLong, but I knew YuanFei very well. When I first met him, he helped Rudy torture me to death. More recently, while we were living on Mount Jiang, I saved his life and offered him my protection. In return, he instigated a coup against me. We were good old friends.
The servant continued guiding us straight ahead.
“This area contains the residences for our Grandmasters, Masters, and elite Disciples.”
Each residence had a sign out front labeling who lived within, so my guide felt no need to mention such details.
Eventually, after passing a dozen doors labeled with the names of random Su Clan scions, we reached our destination, the home of Su YuanKong, the third son of the Su Clan’s current Patriarch. Seeing this name made me want to shake my head, but I held it in.
In a past life, YuanKong tried to kill me when I defeated his disciple. Later, he sided with his second brother, YuanFeng, when YuanFeng killed his father and usurped the position of clan Patriarch. Then, he acted as the Master of Ceremonies during that farce of an alchemy competition against Rudy. While I wasn’t quite as good of ‘friends’ with YuanKong as I was with his eldest brother, we did have our share of history together.
My guide led me inside, and I saw what passed for a palace built for the son of the Patriarch of the clan that dominated the Western Wastes.
Su YuanKong’s courtyard was rather spartan. There was no greenery, and the entire area was paved with simple, gray bricks. Aside from the palace itself, the only items of note were a few battered wooden training dummies used for practicing martial arts. The palace itself was well-built and had red walls with white and brown accents. For a mortal dwelling, it would have been nice, but for a Grandmaster…
The servant guided me into the front room, where a sitting area with four chairs around a small table had been arranged. After ushering me to my seat, he went to prepare some tea.
Left alone, I was a little annoyed. The Second Elder hadn’t assigned me a cultivation technique, so I didn’t have anything to do.
Of course, I didn’t need the clan to give me a technique, and I wouldn’t have used it even if they had. But without having been given one, I couldn’t cultivate without raising unnecessary suspicions.
With no better option, I sat and simply meditated as I looked around my inner world and watched my clan work.
After several hours of waiting, the front door of the house opened, and a familiar figure walked inside.
YuanKong looked me up and down with a pleased expression on his face. “Little Fang… It’s… It’s so good to see you again after all this time. I thought we had lost you, but the Heavens saved you.”
I had no idea how to respond to that. My mouth just dropped open in shock.
YuanKong didn’t seem to mind. He rushed forward and hugged me.
“Don’t worry, son. Now that you’re here, I can ensure your protection. We won’t have to worry about losing each other ever again.” He paused his speech and turned away, trying to hide his face. “It’s just… It’s a pity that your mother can’t be here with us.”
It was clear he wanted me to ask, so I did my best to add a hitch to my voice. “My… my mother? I have a mother?”
He turned back to face me with a pleading look. “No, Fang. Don’t ask about her. Your mother is… she’s part of a powerful family. If they find out that you survived, they will do everything in their power to end your life. Only by becoming stronger and strengthening the clan can we become worthy of our connection to her family.”
I put on my best sad face and looked at the ground. “I understand.”
YuanKong’s acting skills were… impressive. He almost seemed to actually believe every word he was saying. If this had been my first life in the clan, I might have even believed him.
YuanKong reached into his robe and pulled out a thin brown book.
“Fang, this is our family’s secret technique. It’s a Mid-Profound cultivation technique for metal qi. If you… If you want to see your mother, you need to become stronger. This technique can help you. No one in the entire clan has had the talent needed to cultivate this technique for centuries. With your affinity, you may have a chance.”
I nodded with conviction. “I understand, father.”
YuanKong smiled when I called him that.
“Let me show you to a cultivation room. Carefully study this technique before you begin cultivating it. The first step will be to create a qi filter. You need to do this as perfectly as possible so that you do not absorb any impurities. You must not allow your foundations to become corrupted.”
I hesitated. I felt that I should just agree so as not to give the game away, but I felt the urge to learn more about the way the Su Clan treated its elites.
“You aren’t going to teach me? How can I learn to cultivate without guidance?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, son. Your father is incompetent. I can barely understand that scroll myself. You will need to do your best to learn it on your own.”
I gripped the man’s shoulder in a show of support. “I understand, father. Your son will not fail you in this.”
YuanKong led me to the back right corner of the house and showed me a small, windowless room that contained nothing but a mundane cultivation mat. Across from it, there was a decently-sized bedroom that held a rather comfortable-looking bedroll.
“Take your time. When you are tired, sleep. When you are hungry, a servant will bring you food.” YuanKong gestured to a door that led outside. “As you are one of the clan’s new elites, there will be a competition at the end of the month where you may be challenged for your position. Once you have a grasp on the basics of cultivation, I will help you train in martial arts so that you will be prepared for this.”
I bowed my head. “I understand, father.”
With that, YuanKong departed and left me to my own devices.
I wanted to slap the man. Did anyone really think that I would believe such nonsense? What were the elders trying to pull?
Still, I would just let things play out naturally. Being the Patriarch’s grandson should grant me a bit of extra freedom, and, hopefully, it would allow me to take control of the Su Clan even sooner than I had hoped.