Chapter 68 – Life 60, Age 20, Martial Master 3 - The Undying Immortal System [Book 1 Stubbing Aug 31st] - NovelsTime

The Undying Immortal System [Book 1 Stubbing Aug 31st]

Chapter 68 – Life 60, Age 20, Martial Master 3

Author: G Tolley
updatedAt: 2025-08-24

“Fang!”

Mei burst into my workshop and interrupted me in the middle of making a pill.

I lost my concentration, and the pill I was working on collapsed, wasting a set of Rank 3 ingredients.

“You need to get downstairs, now!”

I didn’t wait for her to explain. If she were going to, she would have already done it.

When I arrived at the landing for the second floor, I heard loud shouts and accusations. I rushed out and saw two guards in Pavilion uniforms hauling SuYin away.

As soon as I saw this, I shouted. “Stop!”

They didn’t even spare me a glance.

Looking at them in qi vision, I saw that they were both high-level Masters, but their foundations were shoddy. So, I ran forward, grabbed one of the men by his shoulder, and threw him away.

“Stop,” I growled.

“Back off,” the remaining man barked. “Don’t interfere in Pavilion business.”

“And what business involves hauling an attendant through the halls?”

At that moment, a mocking voice echoed around me. “What’s going on here?”

I turned to see Deputy Manager Liu approaching us. He had a wicked smile on his face.

I snarled at him. “That’s what I want to know.”

“Guardsman?” Liu’s voice had a faint lilt to it.

The guard looked at Liu and bowed his head. “This attendant was seen attacking a guest on the steps of the Pavilion while wearing a Pavilion uniform. We are bringing her to you for punishment, sir.”

Liu chuckled. “My, my, that is serious.”

Ignoring this byplay, I looked at SuYin. “What happened?”

Tears were streaming down her face. “It was Gou. I was just outside, and he ran up and tried to grab me. I had to fight him off.”

Liu gasped in feigned outrage. “You attacked the disciple of one of the city's most renowned alchemists? That is a serious crime.”

One of the guards that had been manhandling SuYin stepped forward. “Yes, sir. Alchemist Gou approached this beast, and she suddenly attacked him.”

I ground my teeth together. “Guards of the Pavilion saw an attendant getting attacked, and instead of defending her, you worked to frame her?”

The guard smirked at me. “She wasn’t attacked. The honored alchemist simply invited her to a restaurant for a conversation.”

I put an arm around SuYin and tried to guide her away. “Let’s go find WuJing. This is his mess to deal with.”

Liu stepped in front of me. “No, it isn’t. I’ve heard enough. As Deputy Manager of the Dragon Gate City Branch of the Blue Wind Pavilion, I hereby expel this woman from the Blue Wind Pavilion and ban her from ever entering again.”

I smiled evilly at him. “Oh? You do, do you?”

“Yes.” Liu's voice was dripping with smug satisfaction. “It is my duty as Pavilion Manager to eliminate the evil and help the meritorious prosper.”

“Good, very good.” I nodded then turned to SuYin. “You don’t work here anymore, so you don’t need to listen to him. Come, let’s go find WuJing.”

“Find me for what?” WuJing asked, walking up to our group.

Liu let out a mocking laugh. “To beg for her job. Sadly, my decision is final.”

WuJing looked at me nonchalantly. “Fang?”

“I need you to arrange a room in the Pavilion. That should be manageable, right?”

Liu barked in laughter. “Not on your life!”

WuJing nodded. “He’s right. She isn’t a member, so getting her a room on the upper floors is against the rules, and he can block her from getting a room on the lower floors. Instead, we just need to move you up to a suite on the fourth floor. It’ll have a side room where she can stay. Come with me, and we’ll get it all sorted out.”

With a wave, WuJing turned to guide me away.

Liu let out a snarl. “Stop right there.”

WuJing turned back and gave him a pleasant smile. “Do you have any instructions, Deputy Manager?”

“Yes! She is banished. Guards, take her away!”

As the guards began to move, WuJing spoke up to stop them. “I didn’t know that a Deputy Manager had the authority to banish a Pavilion member’s personal disciple. That is interesting news. I’ll have to report to Secretary Jiang that I had not been informed of this change.”

“What?”

At first, Liu’s eyes narrowed, but as he understood the implications of WuJing’s words, they began to widen.

WuJing waved a dismissive hand. “Yes, I must do that. I must also ask him why the Pavilion’s guards did not defend a member’s personal disciple and instead protected her attacker. I would really like him to explain to me when that change was implemented.”

“She isn’t—”

“She is, and this was officially recorded years ago.”

Putting the powerless Deputy Manager out of my mind, I returned my attention to SuYin. “Let’s go.”

With WuJing’s threats, Liu no longer dared to stop us.

As soon as the three of us were alone in his office, WuJing plopped down on an armchair and began rubbing his temples.

“It’s Manager Cai. She’s wanted to get rid of that bastard Liu for years, and she’s using us both as foils. He’s never liked me, and he’s targeting you to befriend Zhong. Cai isn’t antagonizing him directly. She is just ensuring that he doesn’t see certain information so that he’ll make a few terrible decisions, like sending a high-level Disciple against a newly ascended Martial Master.” He smiled at SuYin. “Congratulations, by the way.”

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She blushed.

I took a breath, not wanting to have to deal with this. “What do we do?”

WuJing snorted. “Do with what? This is Cai’s game, and you won’t stop her from playing it. You can play your own. Just decide what you want, and I can help you plan it out, but as far as Liu? Just keep doing what you’re doing. He can’t touch you, and now he can’t touch SuYin, either. Mei and I are still vulnerable, but we’re strong enough to handle him.”

I nodded. “What about Zhong?”

This time, WuJing let out a true laugh. “You can already take care of him by yourself, can’t you? Go ahead and make your move whenever you want. He believes he has connections, but they will disappear the instant he tries to use them.”

I looked at WuJing. I needed a serious reply. “You said that you would help me plan my game. I just want my troubles in the city to vanish. What’s my play? Do I kill him?”

WuJing stroked his chin in thought. “Maybe. It’s the most direct solution, but it’s also the most troublesome. No matter how careful you are, someone will know it was you, and his relatives will seek you out for revenge. These things quickly spiral out of control, and you will eventually be forced to cut the weeds and eliminate the roots. Entire clans might get put to the torch. Instead, it would be better to let someone else carry the black pot and take the blame.”

“Any ideas?”

WuJing smiled. “Of course. How much do you know about poisons?”

The answer, as it happened, was a suspiciously large amount. Back when I was experimenting in Rudy’s workshop, a sizable number of his herbs had possessed a variety of poisonous effects. During my first life in his workshop, I had learned that someone had been poisoning the clan’s disciples, and that poison had to have come from somewhere. That somewhere was Rudy’s workshop.

Later, I spent several lifetimes practicing alchemy in that workshop, and I had gained a lot of experience working with poisonous herbs. Back then, I didn’t care too much about the specifics. Herbs were herbs, and pills were pills. I practiced with whatever was at hand. Still, this extensive practice gave me a bit of in-depth knowledge about making poisons. The only time I had used this knowledge was when I had concocted my foolproof instant reset pill, but now, I had a new place to flex my muscles.

WuJing had a few ideas, but what we eventually settled on was something totally evil. The plan was that I would concoct a variety of pills that would mimic the purity and efficacy of those produced by Master Zhong. The one difference was that I would add in an undetectable poison that would simulate the effects of consuming a Low-Purity pill.

Unfortunately, after examining and experimenting with a variety of poisonous herbs, I couldn’t find any way to achieve this goal. While I could use poisons to recreate some of the effects of pill toxins, there was little chance that anyone would actually be deceived.

After putting everything down and walking away for a day, I finally realized the mistake I was making. I didn’t need some exotic poison that could mimic the effects of pill toxins. As long as I didn’t purify the herbs I was using, any pills I made would naturally be chock-full of toxins. I only needed to make it so that a cursory examination of said pills didn’t reveal their low quality.

I created a regular Low-Purity pill and looked at it. The toxins were evenly distributed throughout the pill, so it was easy to tell its quality. Being very careful, I burned off the toxins on just the surface layer of the completed pill. This was much harder than normal purification since the energy had already been condensed and hardened, but with a simple Rank 2 pill, I was able to manage it, if barely. Still, the result was a pock-marked mess of a thing that no one would confuse for a proper pill.

Trying again, I first concocted a large group of Low-Quality pills, then, using a method somewhat similar to what is done with explosive pills, I used an extra set of herbs and divided its energy, sending a small portion to each pill to create a thin sheath around all of them composed of High-Purity medicinal energy.

The result was a pill that was slightly larger than a regular one, but unless someone looked closely, all they would see was a regular High-Purity pill. Still, this wasn’t enough.

Returning my focus back to poisons, I created a toxin with an effect somewhat different from the original plan. On the pill sheaths, I added a compound that would slightly affect a person’s mind, making it more difficult for them to realize they had consumed a pill filled with toxins. With any luck, it would make the attempted framing all the more convincing by showing that someone had clumsily tried to cover up what they had done.

I placed the completed pills on WuJing's desk.

“What do you think?”

After picking one up and examining it, he grinned. “Perfect. It’s easy enough to tell apart when you know what to look for, but if not, I doubt anyone will notice a thing. I’ll get my people to take care of the next step.”

I nodded. “Alright, just let me know when it’s over.”

I started to walk away, but WuJing stopped me. “Be careful of Liu. This will hit him, too, and he might take drastic measures once he realizes you were the one behind it.”

Nothing out of the ordinary happened over the next few weeks. At least, nothing that impacted my

life happened. For Zhong and his customers, it was a different story.

Eventually, WuJing pulled me aside for a chat. “Fang, we need your help. Secretary Jiang has assigned you a bodyguard, and we want you to go out shopping. Maybe shop for some herbs around town. Go to some of the poorer parts and try to pick up a good deal. That kind of thing.”

“He wants me to bait out an attacker. Can I trust the guard?”

“Absolutely not.” WuJing's voice was emphatic. “He is likely to betray you, but there will be others watching from the shadows. As long as you don’t seek death, you’ll be safe.”

With only one life, this would have been a silly risk for me to take, but what did that matter to me? I might as well let things play out to see what would happen.

I was walking down the street of the slums near where I always teleported into the city. Guard Ma was shadowing me, but he wasn’t being too obvious.

When I saw an older man selling what looked to be relatively high-quality herbs down a shadowy alleyway, I decided to check it out. The setup seemed a bit clumsy, but I applauded the effort.

When I approached, the old man scampered off–he was surprisingly spry–and a cloaked figure walked out of the shadows.

Once he was fully in front of me, he pulled back his hood. It was, of course, Manager Liu.

“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me? I don’t know what you did, but it had to be you. I’ve been disciplined for embezzling money and purchasing counterfeit pills.” Liu snorted. “Counterfeit, my ass. Those pills could only have been made by a Grandmaster. Zhong isn’t good enough to make them. It had to be you.”

Clearly, WuJing’s plan to cast the blame onto others hadn’t fully worked. I could only hope that an angry Martial Master had killed off Zhong before he could reach the same conclusion that Liu had.

I smirked at him. “Are you planning to attack me? You set this all up, but you have to know I’m protected, right?”

Liu laughed. “Guard Ma, block the alley. Don’t let anyone see what’s about to happen.”

Guard Ma gave Liu a decisive salute. “Yes, sir.”

As Ma walked away, I called after him. “You need to protect me from Liu. What are you doing?”

He completely ignored me.

Lie grinned evilly. “So naive.”

I looked around at the empty air. “Well? Are you about done? He might really attack me soon.”

Liu laughed. Then, he rushed at me.

I flipped on qi vision to keep an eye on everything. Liu wasn’t using any combat techniques, just basic qi-empowered attacks, but he was a Grandmaster, and I was only a low-level Master. If it came to real combat, I didn’t expect to last too long.

I used my flashing movement technique to avoid his first blow, but Liu quickly followed it up.

He wasn’t trying to kill, only cripple me. This gave me openings that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Employing my sole Rank 3 movement technique, I rushed toward the alleyway’s entrance. My goal was to get as close as I could to Ma and then flash away, but when I was nearly there, Ma’s qi spread out in front of me, and a wall of earth sprang up in my path.

Behind me, Liu was cackling. “It’s not that easy. There’s no escape. I am going to enjoy making you suffer.”

He moved to attack again. A heavy fist slammed down. Liu crashed to the ground.

Secretary Jiang and two other guardsmen stood above the crumpled Liu.

“Attacking a Pavilion member, conspiracy, embezzlement, purchase of counterfeit goods. No matter what your backer says now, you’re done for.” Jiang turned to the guards he had brought with him. “Take him away.”

When only Jiang and I were left in the alleyway, I looked at him cooly. “You wanted me to get injured.”

He nodded. “It would have helped. Attacking is one thing, injuring is another. Crippling or killing you would have let us execute him immediately, but we wouldn’t have allowed that.”

“I see. Please don’t involve me in your plans in the future.”

I began to walk away, but Jiang stopped me with a question. “Are you sure?”

He tossed me a large bag and then brushed past me to make his way out of the alley.

When he was almost gone, he spoke again. “We’ll need those back. They’re just a loan.”

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