1. Clear Mirror Sect

Faust sighed deeply, turning over in his bed to hide his face from the sunlight.

Birds chimed from the cherry trees and the cold side of the pillow quickly warmed up however.

After a deep breath, Faust threw himself out of bed.

“Aaaarghh….” He stretched his stiff limbs in the morning hours.

Well.

Faust was pretty sure it was morning. Birds were chirping outside and he didn’t hear any chatter from the crowds of sect disciples that would otherwise be swarming the streets.

Maybe it was late afternoon instead? No. There wouldn’t be sunlight through his window then. The disciples’ lodges were on the side of a mountain afterall.

Faust guessed it was his fault for not knowing the time well. Since reaching the peak of the Meridian Opening realm he’d only need to sleep 8 hours a week or so. As such, he had, as was perfectly reasonable, rushed a month-long mission by going without sleep for two weeks.

Easy enough.

Faust pulled open the curtains fully, letting the sun’s warmth bathe his room and body in orange light while revealing Jade Road outside. A road which wound around the mountain and connected a little over a thousand outer sect dwellings.

It was a modest, first rate sect. Though only 1 in a hundred would ever get past the Meridian Opening realm within the sect’s time limit, entering the Inner Sect, there were also tens of thousands of dwellings at the base of the mountain, where peripheral disciples who refused to give up on their dream of immortality lived.

Faust nodded to himself while yawning, stepping away from the window and snapping his fingers to ignite the hearth. With another flick of his wrist, water from the sealed barrel of water, in the room’s corner, flew out and filled the iron pot above the hearth, letting it boil. A second flick sent a handful of rice in.

“Haaaah!” Faust stretched one more time as he changed, feeling his abused bones from the last mission cracking into place after a nice rest.

“Those Clear Dew herbs really do work.” Faust mumbled.

Two weeks of exhaustion gone in a single night. Faust flicked his wrist again and threw a few of the Clear Dew herbs from the pile he had been gifted into the pot of rice.

Knock! Knock!

There was a loud banging on the door.

Faust looked over, before putting down the egg and metal pan he was holding.

“Good morning, senior brother!” A youth bowed, cupping one hand over a fist as Faust opened the door. They wore loose, light pink and gold, outer robes with white inner robes and trousers beneath. The uniform of the Clear Mirror’s outer sect disciples.

Faust wore something similar, except missing his light pink outer robe which was lying in his closet somewhere.

“A letter from Fallen Petal Ridge.” The youth presented a letter.

“Oh!” Faust’s head perked up and the fog in his mind cleared. He snatched the letter and opened it on the spot.

“Dear Faust. This letter is penned by the imperial delivery service on behalf of Miss Fauna the Tailor and Sir Preston the Potter.” The letter began. Since Faust came from a small family of pot makers, they weren’t particularly literate, a transcriber writing the letters on their behalf.

“Faust! Your little sister Foria is setting out for the Clear Mirror sects recruitment trial in two days! She’s going with a group of merchants who’ll be participating in the festival in Vibrant Mirror city not too far from the sect! Please, please, please! Take care of her!”

“Son. We know you don’t have many opportunities to visit home and haven’t met your sister more than a few times, but if she does manage to enter the sect, please take care of her. The money you sent before helped us expand the business. I have several apprentices and even two who could be considered master potters working for me now. We moved into a small courtyard manor and your mother spoiled Foria a lot. With the news our son is a senior disciple of the Clear Mirror sect, the guards have also been polite to our family so your sister hasn’t witnessed much of the world’s dark side yet. Even if you don’t progress any further along the path or to immortality or whatever cultivators aim for. We’re proud to call you our son and hope you and Foria can find a way to visit us in the future. I’ve spent the last few weeks working on a gold inlaid porcelain tea set. I hope it doesn’t embarrass you when serving tea to others.”

The letter ended and Faust felt a smile unconsciously form on his lips. He shook his head. His father worried too much about face and reputation.

Faust looked back to the disciple who was now holding a large wooden box, which Faust took with care.

“Have a good day, senior brother, I wish you luck on your path.” The young disciple turned to leave.

“You as well junior.”

Faust turned back inside, feeling butterflies of excitement in his chest as he re-read the letter.

He had a younger sibling!

He had been in complete disbelief 15 years ago when he had first gotten the letter.

It was Faust’s greatest disappointment in life that it took him almost a year to find the perfect sect mission which let him briefly stop by his family home on the return trip, meeting his baby sister for the first time.

If only he was less paranoid about his foundation, he would have already become an Inner Sect disciple and been able to leave the sect without taking a mission.

“Huuh…” Faust exhaled deeply.

After a few deep breaths, the butterflies in his stomach went away and Faust hardened his gaze. He closed his eyes and turned his senses inward as he lay the letter and box down on a small table.

Faust was well aware of his own limits which was why even though it had only taken 3 years from joining the sect to reaching the peak of the Meridian Opening realm, he had spent 11 more years polishing, researching, even closing and rebuilding some of his meridian channels.

The next step of establishing the foundation would be to break into the Open Palace realm. However Faust had been wary of breaking through too early.

If he had made any mistakes or had any flaws in his meridian channels, once he laid the foundation of his inner palace, they would be, almost literally, carved in stone, unable to be changed.

But…

Faust looked out the window. He was 29 now. If one didn’t break through to the Open Palace realm by 30, the sect would consider them as poor talent.

Disciples with poor talent would become sect deacons or administrators.

Poor talent was still better than those who failed to reach the Meridian Opening by the age of 20. They were called, to their faces, Wastes. Wastes were demoted to peripheral disciples, responsible for menial labour of the sect. Some stayed, others left as soon as they saved enough money to pay the sect’s severance fee.

The world went quiet as Faust immersed his senses into his own cultivation.

Soon, only the gentle sloshing and splashing of Faust’s Spirit Qi remained. Looking through his mind’s eye, Faust saw his Dan-Tian, his main node, reminiscent of a wide basin filled with liquid Spirit Qi.

From the Dan-Tian, wide channels, built like oversized bridges of perfectly cut granite and forged steel, led Spirit Qi out of the Dan-Tian and connected to several smaller reservoirs of Spirit Qi at key acupoints Faust had refined, following the humans natural meridians.

Faust had spent years obtaining multiple different channel formation charts and diagrams, while most others used the first one they got their hands on.

Faust smiled nervously to himself, finishing frying his eggs and adding them to a bowl of rice. 11 years at the peak of the Meridian Opening realm hadn’t been in vain.

The meridians Faust had followed, joining key acupoints with massive channels, were the best his means as a commoner with little background allowed and to his knowledge, perfectly suited to himself.

Through his mind’s eye, Faust could see the extensive framework of tempered metal that went all across his spiritual body, anchored to the robust bridges that formed the major channels, forming countless minor channels.

The network of minor channels Faust had built, rebuilt, polished and refined over a decade, branched out to form three arrays within Faust’s spiritual body. One for accelerating qi he could gather from the environment. Another array to refine Environmental Qi into Faust’s own Innate Qi and the final array was to further reinforce his already comically robust qi channels.

With 12 major nodes made up interlinked by major channels and 3 arrays made up of minor channels, it was what others would call a Three-Twelve foundation. With three arrays and twelve nodes.

Finishing his breakfast, Faust compared his current foundation to those of other disciples.

Compared to the One-Three foundations common in the outer sect for those without any backing, or the Two-Six even for relatively wealthy disciples, Faust had basically performed a miracle. He didn’t know what the core disciples were given, but he suspected it was a Four-Eight foundation, not too much better or worse than what he had managed.

“Huuuh… It’s time.” Faust returned to his normal senses, the sounds of the world returning. He had put it off long enough. If he wanted to receive more support from the sect he had to break through before he turned 30 on his next birthday.

Cleaning his breakfast and putting on his outer robe, Faust stepped outside holding his favorite White Jade fan, where the road was starting to fill with disciples beginning their day.

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“Hmmm…” Faust thought as he ascended Jade road up the mountain. “I have Golden Sand, Crushed Spirit Jade and several jugs of Steelpine Sap…” He began going through what he planned to use for his breakthrough materials to form his foundation, fanning himself gently to stave off the blistering summer heat. “I still have plenty of Star Iron and Dark Slate from forging Pastel…”

Soon, Faust came across a massive bridge that stretched to another mountain, the Clear Jade Bridge. If Jade road mountain was the outer sect residential district, then Diamond Mountain, where Jade Mountain connected to, was the market district, as well as where all the sect administration was set up.

“Alright… So I just need deep sea Minotaur Clam shell powder and Iridescent Ashes.” Faust concluded. To break into the early stage Open Palace realm from the peak Meridian Opening realm, one needed to lay the foundation of their inner palace over the top of their qi nodes and channels opened and forged throughout the Meridian Opening realm.

Faust had witnessed a new invention west of the empire during a mission three years ago. The liquid rock the locals called concrete. He evidently hadn’t been the only one inspired either since he managed to snag an Inner Palace foundation laying method in a local auction that incorporated the same principles as concrete.

Unlike the Meridian Opening diagram which Faust had more or less created himself to suit himself perfectly, he was very happy with the foundation laying method he had obtained, which, while lacking any unique abilities like other foundation laying methods, was imagined to bear any load. Even if Faust came across some massive opportunity to form a Heavenly grade golden core, his foundation would be able to withstand it, letting him go that much further on the path to immortality.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Faust’s only modifications to it were that he would complete the early stage in 3 layers instead of 1. He would use Spirit Glazed Platinum on each layer to engrave three additional arrays. They wouldn’t be divine abilities, but they would let him artificially improve his meridian channels by giving him a pseudo six-twelve foundation without affecting his Inner Palaces foundation too much.

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“Freshly picked Spiritual Peaches! Only twenty four silver!” Someone yelled as Faust entered the market area.

“New batch of Star Iron! Limited amounts of Dark Star Iron available too! Buy before it all sells out!”

Several sect sanctioned merchants called out from their stalls. Wide parasols and hastily erected tarps shielded from the worst of the blazing sun, but there was only so much to be done when most of the sect was in mountains so high the clouds couldn’t shield them.

Faust passed by mortal merchants were sweating while the wealthier outer disciples walked around with small leisure artifacts, letting a cool breeze swirl around that occasionally touched Faust, making part of his body cold as they passed each other.

Faust began searching through the stores from a distance, looking for the two materials he was missing for his planned breakthrough.

“Faust!” Faust was interrupted by a distant voice. He turned around to see a young woman, in a vibrant purple outer robe with golden embroidery, approaching him.

Other disciples in light pink robes jumped out of the woman’s way like she was the plague. The aura of an early stage Open Palace cultivator and the inner sect disciple robes marked her as overwhelmingly more important compared to the majority of outer sect disciples who frequented this mountain.

“Ah, Phalecia. It’s good to see you.” Faust greeted, giving a small bow and cupping a fist in one hand, folding his fan away. She was someone five years younger than Faust, who joined in the following sect recruitment and had immense talent in alchemy. Because of that talent, she had been directly invited to the Inner Sect while still at the Qi Refining realm.

“You as well.” Phalecia greeted stiffly as she came up beside him, her short, muted gray hair in a tangled mess behind her.

“Is there something you needed?” Faust asked, continuing to walk through the market with Phalecia beside him.

“Not particularly. I’ve simply been told to greet familiar faces as a matter of courtesy.” Phalecia responded with a shrug of her shoulders, her expression as neutral as always.

“Who told you that?”

“Sirius.”

“Ah… Really, what part of her is serious?”

“Its one of the Inner Sect’s seven mysteries.”

“Have you seen Minotaur Clam shell powder or Iridescent Ashes in the market somewhere?”

“Not in the market. But the alchemy hall has a stockpile.”

“I see. I might need to purchase from them then.” Faust sighed. Purchasing ingredients from the alchemy hall guaranteed the price was going to be ridiculous.

“What do you need them for?”

“I’m planning to break through before the next sect recruitment. I need them for the Inner Palace foundation laying method I plan to use.”

Phalecia stopped abruptly while Faust continued forward.

A handful of nearby disciples who Faust was acquainted with also paused in their step.

Faust stopped, feeling something wrong. He turned back to face Phalecia.