When I woke up in my tiny house in the Su Clan, I took a deep breath and examined my soul.

It wasn’t completely healed from my past trauma, but it was on the mend. There were still frayed edges, but it no longer looked like the slightest breeze could tear it apart. The flames of Du XiongMing’s spatial fire seed had scoured my soul, but they had also injected it with energy that had helped it heal.

I looked at the seed, and my mind drifted to everything that I had been through to get it.

What had the System told me at the start of all of this? ‘If you are present in the capital of the Brilliant Sun Empire at the time of his death, and you have a connection with its ruling dynasty, it may be possible for you to claim this seed as your own upon his death.’

It hadn’t said that I should become a Pill King, and it hadn’t said that I should master formations. All that it had said was that I needed to forge a connection. That was it. Instead of following these instructions, I had driven myself to madness–I had driven Mei to suicide–in a mad rush to improve my skills in a complicated scheme to gain the royal family’s favor.

It would have been easy to simply blame all of this on my cultivation technique. Having a technique that had dedicated me to a singular goal had been far more dangerous than I had anticipated, and it was an easy scapegoat. But I knew that wasn’t the whole story.

I had chosen my path, and I had chosen to focus on that goal even before I had started cultivating.

My thoughts drifted to Prince CaoHan. His cultivation technique had driven him to his own form of madness. He had started a war that would have destroyed everything that he relied on. Was that only his technique’s fault? The prince had dedicated himself to that path before I even met him. His desire to rise above his position as a castoff had led him to make choices that were clearly against his best interests, but he had never been willing to take even a single step back.

And I had just stood by and let him do it…

I switched tracks. Du XiongMing wasn’t any better. I didn’t know how his cultivation technique might have influenced him, but his goal of ascending to Sovereign had destroyed something that he felt was precious.

Could I continue to blame cultivation techniques for all of this? They were a factor, yes, and they only made bad situations worse, but they hadn’t been the root causes of our problems. We were.

I sighed. In the end, I just needed to know one thing: What was I going to do?

I needed balance. I didn’t know how I would achieve it, and I had no idea what it would look like, but I needed to find some kind of balance in my life.

Set a goal, ‘get the seed,’ but at all times, remain balanced. I could not allow a single goal to be the only thing that I was living for. With or without cultivation-induced madness, balance would always be key.

I breathed in and out, centering myself. A small smile appeared on my face. I needed balance, but that also meant that I needed to acknowledge my wins, not just my losses. I had been able to achieve my goal, and that was still worth celebrating.

I could finally begin to proceed with what was important to me beyond anything else. I could begin to build a world beyond the horrors of the Heavenly and Earthly Daos, beyond the madness of cultivators, and beyond the nightmare of an eternal, unending time loop.

I could finally build something that would last. Something that was permanent. Something that was real. It would take me time, but now I had the tools I needed to get started.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

As I thought about this, understanding washed over me, and I froze.

I had gotten the seed. I had made the ‘random’ choice to become a guard in Brilliant Sun and met an old man who talked me into becoming a servant. Somehow, that ended with me acquiring the fire seed that I had wanted for so long. That… Was that reasonable?

Why had I made the choices that I had made? At multiple steps, I had only done what I did because the pain of my torn soul had guided me down a specific path. Was… Was all of it intentional? Had Mei–Mei’s blessing–the being in control of Mei’s blessing–the Earthly Dao… Had it engineered all of this? Aside from Mei, how many others might it have placed in my path to make this happen?

I couldn’t know, but I had my suspicions.

However, if the Earthly Dao were orchestrating everything, there was little I could do about it. It was the closest thing to a god that I had ever seen. I could only hope that it was on my side.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on things that were actually within my control.

Where did I want to go next? There were many paths that I could go down, and there were many debts that I needed to repay, but everything would come in its due course.

I tried to make a plan, but I suddenly realized that I was no longer certain about what my current affinities were. It had been so long since I had thought about them, and my memory had started to fade.

I could have bought something like SuYin’s perfect memory from the System, but no, that was a road to hell. My journal was my permanent memory. It stored everything that I needed to remember. Everything else could be allowed to fade.

Still, it would be nice if I had easier access to information on my past purchases.

“System, I would like you to change the information I receive when I die. I want it to include details about all the affinities and aptitudes that I’ve purchased. Include their permanent levels as well as any temporary boosts that remain in effect.”

Improved Status Notification. Cost 100 credits.

I laughed. The System needed to get its pound of flesh. “Confirm.”

Purchase confirmed. 125,761,675 credits remaining.

I waited.

I slapped my forehead. Of course, I wouldn’t instantly get the information. That wasn’t what I had purchased.

“System, give me that status notification now.”

Status Notification. Cost 10 credits.

I shook my head. It was a meaningless cost, but still, there was no reason to waste good coin. I might as well do something that I hadn’t done in a long time, just for old times’ sake.

I exited my shack and went to the large red door that kept us from leaving the training area.

I pulled with all my strength, but I had forgotten how hard this door was to move. My best efforts only barely budged it.

The door was yanked open, and the guard on the other side glared at me. “What are you doing? No one is allowed out.”

I punched him in the face.

He punched me in the chest.

You have died. Calculating…

You died as a Martial Disciple 1 – 10 credits awarded.

Total Credits: 125,761,685

-----------------------------------------------------

Complete Status Page

Affinities

Peak Six-Star – Earth

Mid Eight-Star – Water, Fire, Metal, Wood

Resistances

Mental Effects (Cultivation Techniques) – 25 million credits

Mental Library

Capacity – Rank 4

Journal – Rank 3

Perfect Transcription – Rank 4

Touch Reading – Rank 1

Comprehension Boosts

Cultivation:

Cultivation Techniques – 520,000 credits

Qi Control – 20,000 credits

Nurturing Disciples – 500,000 credits

Professions:

Alchemy – 520,011 credits

Formations – 500,000 credits

Herbalism – 20,000 credits

Social:

Reading Emotions (True) – 25 million credits

Skills

Enhanced Soul Growth – 20,000 credits

Pill Appraisal – Rank 1 (Comprehensive)

Technique Appraisal – Rank 2 (Yellow)

Language (Western Han)

.

End of Volume 2.