Master of the System

Elder Formation browsed through the sect reports while sipping on a cup of tea. While Rachel was in seclusion, all the elders were responsible for the sect’s management. It was a boring task, and it really was no wonder why sect leaders stopped becoming stronger after claiming the position. There was just too much to do, and Elder Formation bet the previous sect leaders counted the days until they could retire and use the abundant amount of wealth they had stocked up to cultivate. Elder Formation put aside a piece of paper and picked up another one. Her brow furrowed upon seeing it was Grandpa Vremya’s report. After her disciple, Ruby, was crushed by Grandpa Vremya, Elder Formation had to do a lot of coaxing to keep Ruby’s mental state stable. Now, Ruby worked even harder than ever, so it couldn’t be considered a completely bad thing to have lost. However, it was still a sore subject.

Elder Formation flipped through the pages and frowned. With his combat skills, Grandpa Vremya could easily take the missions involving exploration, tomb raiding, and guiding new disciples through training grounds; however, he had chosen a mine-management mission. Only disciples desperately hurting for cash would choose that kind of mission. It wasn’t glorious, and if their management skills weren’t better than their predecessors, they stood to lose a lot. Elder Formation didn’t understand Grandpa Vremya. The man was atrociously wealthy thanks to his wine sales, which all the elders knew about—in fact, some of the elders were his loyal customers. He also didn’t seek any glory or fame. It was as if he was born to cultivate and had no desire for anything else. Could he still be called a human if he lived without desires? Even those who had severed their emotions would keep some of them that were useful for motivation.

Elder Formation shook her head and flipped to the last page of the report. Her eye twitched, and she placed the paper down. Last year, the manager had extracted eight hundred thirty thousand spirit stones from the mine, earning herself a surplus of fifteen thousand spirit stones. From the data taken over the last thirty years, eight hundred thousand spirit stones was the average annual output of the mine, so how the hell did Grandpa Vremya extract over seven million spirit stones? Not only would he take over six million spirit stones away from the sect for himself, but he’d also bring the next manager of the mine to financial ruin. However, after reading some more, Elder Formation realized that wouldn’t be the case. The report was handed in after seven months, and the mission took a year to complete, so why was it handed in so early? Because the mine ran out of spirit stones.

Elder Formation sighed and climbed to her feet. She could send someone to verify Grandpa Vremya’s report, but she wanted to see his actions for herself. Luckily, the sect cranes could fly fast, and it didn’t take long for her to reach the mines. Long trips could pass in the blink of an eye thanks to cultivation. When she arrived at the mine, the first thing she noticed was everyone loitering around. The miners and guards were sitting around, smoking and drinking while playing cards with each other. They raised their heads upon seeing Elder Formation arrive, but they quickly went back to what they were doing.

Elder Formation frowned at the sight, but she didn’t let it bother her. Since, according to the report, the mine was empty, logically that meant the miners didn’t have anything to do but were contractually obligated to stay, and there weren’t any valuables left for the guards to guard. She walked past a few buildings before arriving at the main office, the one where Grandpa Vremya was staying. The sect identity tokens had tracking formations embedded inside of them, so the sect always knew where its disciples were. Only a weirdo like Grandpa Vremya would lend someone else his identity token.

“Elder Formation,” Azalea said and stood up, greeting the elder by cupping her hands. “Senior Brother Vremya is cultivating in his room.”

“Take me to him,” Elder Formation said. Her gaze swept over Azalea’s body. “If you don’t advance faster, Vremya’s going to surpass you.”

Azalea’s expression darkened. She was a little slow in her cultivation compared to her peers, but that was because she refused to sever her emotions. Her family was well off; she had no responsibilities. Why would she take away the pleasures of life in pursuit of power? It didn’t make sense to her. “Thank you for the advice,” Azalea said and cupped her hands at Elder Formation before walking out from behind the front desk. She led the older lady into the dormitories where Grandpa Vremya was staying.

Elder Formation didn’t bother knocking. She pushed open the door and was hit by a wave of condensed spiritual energy. Her brows furrowed as she examined the insides of the room. Formation lines were drawn across the walls, floor, and ceiling. There were also formation flags planted in the corners of the room. In the center of the multiple formations, Grandpa Vremya was sitting with his legs crossed in the lotus position. Elder Formation glanced at Azalea. “Which one of you created these formations?”

“Senior Brother Vremya came up with the blueprints, but I helped him establish them,” Azalea said.

Elder Formation glanced at the formations once more. If only Grandpa Vremya had accepted her offer of becoming her disciple instead of merely pretending to. Instead of spending one hundred years in prison, he could’ve spent it on learning everything she knew. Judging by the performance of the formations in the room, she could tell he was an expert at creating them. “Junior Vremya,” Elder Formation said. “I came to verify your report.”

Grandpa Vremya kept his eyes closed. “Azalea is right there. She can walk you through the process.”

Elder Formation’s eye twitched. She closed the door and turned towards Azalea. “You still do everything for him?”

“Not everything…,” Azalea muttered. “He hasn’t asked me to help him cultivate yet.”

“You want to dual cultivate with him?” Elder Formation asked and raised an eyebrow. She pulled a jade slip out of her interspacial ring and placed it into Azalea’s hands. “I picked this manual up a long time ago in a tomb. I never really found a use for it, but I think you’ll have better luck than me.”

Azalea stared at the jade slip in her hands with a blank expression. Why was every one of her seniors passing her techniques on dual cultivation? Before she could think of anything at all to say, Elder Formation walked away. “Come,” the elder said while gesturing behind herself without looking back, “show me the mining process.”

Azalea stuffed the jade slip into her robes and sighed before catching up to Elder Formation. “Senior Brother Vremya created golems to mine the spirit stones. The rocks that are mined alongside the spirit stones are filled with spiritual energy, but they aren’t quite pure enough to count as spirit stones. He used those stones to create more golems, and those golems would mine more materials and spirit stones to create even more golems.” Azalea gestured for Elder Formation to follow her. “Over here, we have the golem graveyard.”

Elder Formation approached a tunnel and peered inside. There were thousands of rockpiles spread evenly alongside the side of the tunnel. “Each of those rockpiles used to be a golem?”

“That’s correct,” Azalea said. “It costs one spirit stone to power them, but they can mine around ten spirit stones before running out of energy. Since there weren’t any spirit stones left to mine, Senior Brother Vremya had them die here. He says they’ll form a new spirit stone vein in due time.”

“In a few thousand years, yes,” Elder Formation said and pursed her lips. She didn’t approve of Grandpa Vremya’s mining method. It was essentially burning money to make money. It was a great deal for Grandpa Vremya, but overall, it hurt the sect. There would be times when spirit stones were desperately needed, and a method like this would be approved, but in times of peace, it was best to mine the spirit stones while using as few spirit stones as possible; after all, slave labor was cheap.

“Would you like to see how the golem operates?” Azalea asked, pulling a spirit stone out of her robe.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Elder Formation said and shook her head. She placed a hand on Azalea’s shoulders. “You’re probably the only person he listens to. See if you can’t convince him to spend his time and energy on something useful. Golem creation is a gimmick; there’s no real substance behind it.”

Azalea nodded. “I’ve asked him about it before, but he said it was just a subset of spiritual engineering.”

“Spiritual engineering?” Elder Formation asked and furrowed her brows. “He’s actually interested in that?”

“You know about it?” Azalea asked, tilting her head. As the princess of an empire, she knew a lot of things, but she hadn’t heard about spiritual engineering before.

Elder Formation nodded. “I came across it once when I was younger. The engineers were trying to make suits of armor that were over thirty feet tall. They said things like their armor would fly them to the moon and beyond.”

Azalea’s eyes widened. “Did they succeed?”

Elder Formation snorted. “They were wiped out by a subsidiary of the Ten Faces Sect,” she said. “It just goes to show how useless their pursuits were. If Junior Vremya wants to become a true powerhouse, he’ll have to redirect all his focus and energy into cultivation and the seven arts.”