WuJing slid a stack of papers across his desk.

“This is the contract to transfer the city of Peaceful Ridge into your name. After you sign, you will be the officially recognized city lord of Peaceful Ridge with all the rights and responsibilities that come with it.”

I took a pen and signed, then WuJing flipped to the next page.

“This cedes your control of the city to Steward Fu. He will have complete authority over all matters dealing with Peaceful Ridge during your tenure as city lord.”

I signed, and WuJing flipped the page.

“This is your resignation notice. Signing this, you hereby relinquish your position as city lord effective one year from this date.”

I signed. He continued presenting me with minor documents that would help make this whole operation karmically legal.

When I was eventually able to put down the brush, I cracked my sore knuckles.

“So, I am now a city lord. Does just signing these papers really shift the flow of karmic energy to me?”

WuJing shook his head. “No, signing these papers is simply staking a claim on the city. On the other side, Steward Fu will announce your appointment to the entire city, and the residents will acknowledge your position. The combination of your actions and theirs completes the connection.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Alright, as long as it works, but will one year be enough time to get the energy I need to ascend to Lord?”

“It should be more than enough to get the energy you need for the initial breakthrough to Lord 1, but that’s about it. The cities the Pavilion rents out are well-run, but they aren’t going to lease you anything too special.”

I furrowed my brow. “What do I do after?”

“Well, you can continue to cultivate without the added karmic energy. You will be worse off than someone who had their entire cultivation boosted by it, but not significantly so. This will, however, make it significantly more difficult to advance as a King. So, if you are holding onto dreams of becoming an Emperor one day, you need to use additional karma energy during each breakthrough in the Lord realm.”

I tried to piece together the plan. “So, I will need to repeatedly regain a position as city lord? Is that possible?”

“As long as you’re a Rank 4 Alchemist, it won’t be a problem. Once you can make Rank 4 pills, you might even be able to purchase a long-term lease from Eight Flower. I’m not familiar with the situation there, but if Eight Flower isn’t willing, then some other kingdom or empire in the region probably will be. As long as you are willing to work to improve the city, such a deal would benefit both you and the kingdom, and with the Pavilion’s assurances, they shouldn’t have too many reservations about it.”

I snorted. “Sounds too simple.”

WuJing smiled. “Being a member of the Pavilion opens doors that are closed to others, and the Pavilion values its Pill Lords. Still, the cultivation technique you use at Rank 4 could be a sticking point. Rank 4 techniques don’t just affect you. They also affect those you are karmically connected to. You have to use an authorized technique with Pavilion cities, and you will need to find a kingdom that doesn’t mind the technique you choose.”

“And when do I get said technique?”

“Only once we’re out of here. You can’t break through to Martial Lord in the Wastes, so we don’t have any copies of Rank 4 techniques here. You’ll have to wait until we get to Rising Sun.”

Mei, WuJing, and I departed Dragon Gate City a week after I was appointed city lord. It would take over a month to travel to the Eight Flower Kingdom, and a lot of that time was to be spent on the first leg of our journey.

When we departed the Pavilion, our carriage was pulled by a team of normal, mortal horses. While this was far better than walking, the speed of mortal animals was limited. To add to this, the roads leading out of the region were in a state of disrepair, so we were lucky if we could cover thirty kilometers in a day. By feeding the horses Rank 1 pills, we were able to increase that distance a bit, but it was still slow going.

After eight days, we reached the edge of the Wastes and entered the Red Sun Kingdom, a subsidiary kingdom under the Rising Sun Empire. After two more days, we reached Red Sun City, the capital of the Red Sun Kingdom.

Once in Red Sun City, WuJing was able to switch out our mortal horses for a team of Rank 3 wind horses. Wind horses were, in essence, mortal horses that had been trained to draw in wind qi like a demon beast. This gave wind horses far greater endurance and speed than their mortal counterparts, and the distance we previously covered in a week could be done in a day.

At only Rank 3, these wind horses could have technically entered the Wastes. However, due to a variety of factors, both political and logistical, it had been far easier for us to wait until after entering Red Sun to requisition them. Even then, we had only been able to do so because WuJing had been appointed the new manager of the Eight Flower Branch of the Blue Wind Pavilion, giving him the clout he needed.

After leaving Red Sun City, our next destination was the capital of the Rising Sun Empire. With our new carriage and better roads, we made swift progress and reached the imperial capital only two days later.

The process of entering Rising Sun City went far smoother than I expected. While there was a line of people waiting to get past the guards at the gate, our carriage, with Blue Wind Pavilion markings, was simply waved on through.

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The Rising Sun Empire was far more prosperous than the Wastes, and the density of qi was much higher. In Dragon Gate City, most people were mortals who had never cultivated, and those who had were almost all low-level Disciples. Martial Masters were a rare sight, and Grandmasters were almost never seen in public.

In Rising Sun City, though, everyone was a cultivator, and most were close to the Peak of the Disciple realm. Grandmasters were still rare, but I still saw a handful of them walking the streets. I did not, however, see anyone at the Lord level or higher. Cultivators of the Ruler Tier were removed from the daily life of commoners.

Our carriage pulled up outside an expensive-looking inn. It was lavishly decorated with red and gold paint, and two guardian lion statues flanked its entrance.

WuJing waved me toward this entrance. “I’ve got you a room at this inn. It’s one of the nicest in the city, so you should be well taken care of. I need to spend a day at this city’s Pavilion, but it would be best if you didn’t come in. The branch manager here won’t be happy when he finds out that his region lost its biggest source of Rank 3 pills, so we will want to try and get out of here without him realizing who you are.”

“Is it going to be a problem?”

“No, he can’t really do anything to us, but he might delay us. It’s just best not to make it an issue. I’ll grab your new cultivation technique and come back. Just give me a couple of hours.”

Accepting his arrangements, I left the carriage and entered the inn. Its insides were opulent, but I didn’t care much. I allowed a waitress to guide me to my room, where I sat to wait for WuJing’s return.

As I did, I focused on the small bits of karmic energy that had entered my dantian over the past few days. I wanted to avoid touching them until I had a proper technique to guide me, so I just watched as the energy slowly accumulated. The amount of energy I gained in a day was minuscule, but over time, it would add up.

After three hours, WuJing appeared and brought me to a restaurant to eat while we talked.

He passed me a small book. “Here it is. This is the standard Rank 4 cultivation technique for the Pavilion’s craftsmen.”

I flipped through it casually, but it seemed a little strange. “There’s a standard technique for fire-wood dual-element cultivators?”

WuJing shook his head. “No, we don’t have anything specialized to any particular element. This is a generic technique that anyone can use. It focuses more on the karmic part of the cultivation, encouraging hard work and industriousness for both you and those you are connected with. You will need to adjust the qi aspect of it to work best for your cultivation base.”

“Anything I need to be careful about?”

WuJing laughed. “You’re asking me, but who am I supposed to ask? I’m in the same boat as you. Try your best, and if there are any problems, we can look at getting guidance from a Lord after we get to Eight Flower. For now, just do your best.”

I smiled. “Will do.”

After speaking with WuJing, I returned to my room to study my new technique.

The first step in becoming a Martial Lord was to create a core of karmic energy inside one’s dantian. From what I could tell, this core served the same general purpose as the dantian, except it was made from solid karmic energy instead of braided strands of qi. Once the core was complete, the cultivator would then send qi inside it, forcing the energy to compress to a far greater extent than was possible in a dantian.

When ascending to False Lord, a cultivator would weave qi strands together to form a dense, tightly packed false core of pure qi. This false core suffered the same problems as the larger dantian. A woven structure was simply not able to contain the pressure needed to condense qi to sufficient levels for a proper breakthrough. Using such a process, one could advance, but they could not reach the level of a true Lord.

Since qi was not capable of creating a solid core, cultivators had resorted to using karmic energy. Karmic energy could easily be compressed into a dense, near-solid material that was perfect for forming a hardened core capable of withstanding extreme pressures.

Once the core was in place, qi would be injected into it, and the qi would compress until the cultivator broke through to the next stage. At this point, karmic energy could be woven into the qi to make the process faster, but gathering so much of the precious energy was extremely difficult. Instead, the cultivation technique advised using basic qi while cultivating normally and only braiding in karmic energy when one was ready to advance to the next stage.

There was still a lot I didn’t understand about the process of advancing as a Lord, but from what I could tell, it wasn’t much different from advancing as a Grandmaster. I simply needed to inject qi into my core until it condensed and crystallized into a new form. From my reading, the element of the qi seemed to make no difference to the process. It might affect the final result, but it seemed meaningless to the cultivation process.

This understanding of the process didn’t sit quite right with me, though. Was the only difference between advancing as a Lord and advancing as a Grandmaster the extent to which one would need to compress their qi? That didn’t seem likely. There had to be more to the process. After all, what was the point of braiding karmic energy into my qi?

I couldn’t tease this information out of the book in front of me, though, so I would either have to wait to find someone who could explain it or wait to try it out for myself. In any case, I was not yet ready to try advancing to Martial Lord. I would need to collect far more karmic energy before it would be possible to even begin forming my core.

Still, I wanted to begin learning how to manipulate and form karmic energy.

My top dantian contained my wood qi, and my bottom dantian contained my fire qi. My middle dantian had remained mostly empty except for a few stray wisps of qi that had slipped in. However, after being appointed to the position of city lord of Peaceful Ridge, strands of karmic energy had begun gathering inside of it.

I reached for that energy and began trying to mold it into the shapes needed for my dantian, but it was difficult. Unlike fire and wood, I had no affinity with karma to help me. The cultivation technique I had been given took this into account, though.

Most cultivators would have the same problems I did when controlling karmic energy, so the structures needed for the core were bulky and lacked finesse. I just needed to be able to force the energy into a basic structure, and my soul strength was high enough to make that possible.

I spent hours painstakingly forcing my karmic energy into one shape after another to get a good feel for how it would react. I wanted to get in sufficient practice with the stuff well before my dantian contained too much of it for me to handle.

Focused on studying my new cultivation technique, I was completely unprepared when pain suddenly shot through my entire body.

From my sitting position, I was knocked to the ground by a hard kick to my chest. Then, two long steel rods impaled me on either side of my body, right under my collarbone, pinning me to the floor.

I looked around but saw no sign of my attacker. Remembering the illusionist from the Dragon Gate Festival, I flipped on my qi vision, but I still saw nothing.

An ominous voice echoed all around me. “I was sent to give you a message. Be more honest in your next life, and don’t offend those you can’t afford to offend.”

A sword appeared above me and stabbed into my chest.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Grandmaster Peak — 1,000,000 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 1,025,806