Waking up in my tiny house in the Su Clan’s training complex, I leaned back and took a deep breath, savoring the musty, stale air. My time in this complex had been horrific, marked by a dozen deaths and a century of enslavement. However, I couldn’t help but feel that I had finally returned home after a long journey.

My first foray into the Central Continent had ended rather abruptly, but in truth, it had been more successful than I could have ever hoped. Beyond the wealth of high-level herbs and seeds I had acquired, the knowledge I had gained during my time as the head of the Palace of the Herb Sovereign would be key to my clan’s future success.

There was also, of course, the Heaven-Rank fire seed that I had obtained from Mandakh. This seed wouldn’t be of much immediate use—my affinities weren’t anywhere near the level needed to control it, and until I knew more about the Laws it contained, I couldn’t risk using it to enhance my inner world. However, I was confident that it would come in handy during my future endeavors.

Speaking of my inner world…

I focused my mind on the center of my soul, where my inner world sat atop a pedestal, wreathed by the flames of the Immutable Mountain Fire. Then, I pushed further, allowing my mind to enter the world itself.

At the moment, my world was composed of fifteen independent planes. Five of these planes—the Plane of Fire and the four that would eventually be dedicated to the ‘light’ element—sat empty, and six were populated only by demon beasts.

Of the four that remained, the most populous was Chang’an, which for the past thousand years, had been ruled by a council of representatives from each of the plane’s most powerful clans. These clans each had their own agendas, but they stood united against the constant invasions of powerful demon beasts.

Helping with this unity was the fact that I retained complete control over the plane’s access to karmic energy. Every 50 years, each clan was given the opportunity to choose one of its members to ascend to Martial Lord—an opportunity that they could give to anyone they wished. If I liked a clan’s choice, I gave them more energy, allowing them to advance deeper into the Lord realm. However, if I felt their choice was detrimental in some way, they didn’t receive any karmic energy at all.

This allowed me to subtly shape Chang'an's leadership without becoming involved in its politics.

The next most populous was the Plane of Dark Woody Earth, where the city of Hei’lin had recently been established. The inhabitants of this plane were the descendants of those who had chosen to abandon Chang’an and seek a life of peace, safe from the attacks of demon beasts.

With no access to karmic energy, no one on this plane was able to ascend beyond the Rank of Martial Grandmaster. This could have led the plane in an egalitarian direction, with everyone using their powers to improve their society as a whole. However, with no outside threat to keep the people united, Hei’lin was subjected to a series of endless coups as each clan fought for supremacy.

Recently, descendants of the Du Clan had taken control of Hei’lin proper, but the plane had several smaller villages where the other clans retained their autonomy. Given enough time, these clans would no doubt form a temporary alliance, overthrow the Du Clan, then start fighting amongst themselves in an endless cycle of retribution.

I wasn’t exactly happy about this situation, and I did send the occasional aid package to clans I felt were being unfairly suppressed. However, for the most part, I allowed Hei’lin to evolve naturally. I might not have liked the path this plane was walking, but I was

interested to see where it might lead. Therefore, since Hei’lin held little importance to my current objectives, I gave them the freedom to figure things out for themselves.

The third most populous plane was the Plane of Woody Earth, where the Bao and Ye Clans tended to the grove that served as my karmic energy storage system. Having the entire 30-kilometer-wide plane practically to themselves, neither of these clans had been particularly inclined to build any cities. Instead, they had limited themselves to small, spread-out farming communities.

In return for them taking care of my karmic energy grove, I provided these two clans with whatever resources they requested. However, for the most part, all they wanted was a greater variety of plant life and suitable environments to grow them in—such as underground lakes and windswept plateaus. Many of these requests ran counter to my idea of a plane focused entirely on the wood and earth elements, but I did my best to accommodate them where feasible. Eventually, though, I would need to look into giving these clans access to the other planes.

Like the people of Hei’lin, no one on Woody Earth was able to advance beyond Martial Grandmaster. However, several of the older residents were still capable of nurturing Rank 5 herbs, qualifying them as Herb Kings. Strangely, though, these powerful herbs were considered little more than idle curiosities. What these clans truly prized was the bounty of mortal plants that I had acquired during my time in the Palace. After all, learning to nurture these more delicate plants was what had allowed the older cultivators to improve their skills so much.

Lastly, there was the Plane of Wood, where Clan LuLu dwelt alongside those who had decided it was a good idea to live in a world inhabited by nothing but demon deer.

The culture that had developed on the Plane of Wood was both strange and horrifying—to outsiders, at least. Like Hei’lin and Woody Earth, no one on the Plane of Wood had access to karmic energy, but unlike the residents of those two planes, the inhabitants of the Plane of Wood hadn’t let this stop them from becoming stronger.

Whenever a cultivator died, their corpse was fed to one of the deer, allowing it to ascend to higher Ranks. Whenever one of the deer died, their corpse was fed to one of the cultivators, allowing them to use the demonic energy to strengthen their bodies. This, along with a society that encouraged small-scale skirmishes between various settlements, led to the inhabitants of the Plane of Wood being nearly as powerful as those who lived in Chang’an.

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These four planes, each one evolving in such a radically different direction, opened up some tantalizing possibilities, but those would have to wait for the future. At the moment, my goal was to bring the Su Clan out of my inner world and build them into a force that was capable of assisting me in advancing to Martial Spirit. Then, to Martial Ancestor.

With no one in Chang’an’s Su Clan being above Martial Lord, one might think this goal a far-off dream. However, while the clan didn’t have any Kings or Emperors, it did have a bounty of Peak Grandmasters. Under the right conditions, these Grandmasters could quickly bloom into powerful Rulers who would be capable of supporting a Bloodline.

What were “the right circumstances,” though? I could assist my clan in conquering the Nine Rivers Continent again, but even setting aside the risks associated with being under the thumb of the Nine Rivers Saint, this would still be less than ideal.

In Chang’an, power had a purpose. People became powerful in order to fight back against the invading demon beasts. If people rushed to Peak Emperor for no greater purpose than simply being Peak Emperor, Chang’an would soon be no different from Hei’lin, with the various clans scheming against each other for small advantages.

No, I needed my people to grow more powerful in a setting where that power served a greater purpose. Thankfully, such a setting had already been prepared for me. I just needed a bit of help to take full advantage of it.

Sorting through my treasury, I located three specific memory orbs and set them aside, ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice. Then, I looked up and spoke to the empty air.

“System, teleport me to the top of Mount Jiang. 30 seconds after I arrive, teleport Shi YuLong to my side. Then, at 30-second intervals, teleport Shi YuHua and Meng LuYao over as well.”

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My surroundings shifted, and I suddenly found myself atop a barren plateau.

Quickly getting my bearings, I pulled out the first of the memory orbs right as Shi YuLong popped into existence next to me. He looked almost exactly the same as the first time I had seen him in the Yellow Orchid Academy—tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and biceps that seemed ready to tear through his robes. He was even wearing the same gold rings and shiny leather boots that he had on when we first met. The only difference was that, instead of wearing one of the Academy’s training robes, YuLong was dressed in the richly embroidered, dark-blue silks of a noble.

Considering the rather weak body I had at the start of each reset, if YuLong decided to attack me, I wouldn’t be able to put up much of a struggle. So, before he could recover from the disorientation of being teleported to an unfamiliar environment, I slammed a memory orb into his hands and activated my implantation ability.

As YuLong’s eyes glazed over, I pulled out the next orb and waited. Only a few seconds later, a short, nine-year-old girl appeared next to me. Unlike her brother, YuHua wasn’t wearing any form of jewelry, but her pale skin and opulent, pink robes made it clear that she had lived a life of luxury.

Not hesitating for even a moment, I forced the orb into her small hands and activated my ability once more.

Only moments later, another young woman appeared, this time dressed in the blue and silver qipao of an attendant from the Blue Wind Pavilion. Teleported to a desolate plateau and surrounded by three strangers, Meng LuYao initially stood frozen in fear. However, after only a few seconds, this fear began to morph into excitement.

Not giving her time to fully process what was happening, I reached out, wrapped her hands around the final memory orb, and activated my implantation ability.

The three memory orbs that I had used were somewhat special, containing far less information than usual. However, it still took time for everyone to absorb what they had learned and come back to their senses. When they did, YuLong and Meng LuYao looked around as if expecting others to join us, but YuHua just looked around, confused.

“L… Long? What are you doing here?” she asked. “Where… is here?”

This made YuLong give me a sharp look. “Did something go wrong with the memory transfer? Why doesn’t she already know?”

I held up my hands in a placating gesture. “The last time we spoke, I had each of you create a special memory orb that was supposed to contain as little information as possible—only the information you felt was vital to know at the start of a new cycle. You were responsible for deciding what to include in these orbs yourselves. Considering YuHua’s age, I asked her to reduce the information her orb contained to an absolute minimum. She doesn’t remember because she didn’t consider such details important.”

YuLong nodded slowly. “I… seem to remember something like that.”

“Take your time,” I said, giving him a slight smile. “This is the first test run of these orbs. My hope is that they’ll give you a foundation to build a life upon without needing to burden you with too many memories. Those can wait until your soul is strong enough to contain them. For now, just think about what changes you might want to make to this starter orb.”

As YuLong lowered his head in thought, Meng LuYao spoke up.

“What about the others? Shouldn’t Yan and XiaoYu be here as well?”

“No, not this time. The place we’re headed to is a little special. We need to keep our group relatively small.”

This made all three youths tense up, so I went ahead and gave them a basic rundown of the Central Continent, the Heroes Domain, and my plans for how to revitalize the Su Clan.

“You want to create a new sect? With just the four of us?” asked YuLong, rubbing his head as he attempted to absorb all the new information.

“The four of us plus the members of my Su and your Shi Clan living in my inner world. We’ll play the Saint of Heroes’ game properly, one step at a time, allowing us to build our clans into true powerhouses without needing to worry about being crushed by the continent’s more established factions.”

LuYao looked around skeptically. “Why us, though? Why not Yan or LiTing?”

“Because you, LuYao, have a blessing that will be invaluable on the Central Continent. It will allow us to determine exactly which weapons and cultivation techniques people are most suited for. YuLong, on the other hand, has a combat-focused blessing and has proven himself to be a talented teacher—both of which will be important for our new sect.”

I turned to the youngest member of our cohort. “YuHua, we’ll need to wait for you to come of age before officially inducting you into our sect. For now, it might be best if you stayed on the Plane of Woody Earth, where you’ll be safe. Start thinking about what you want to become in this life, though.”

YuHua gave me a tentative nod, but she remained visibly unsettled by the entire conversation. After all, she might have been injected with a few extra memories, but she was still a nine-year-old girl who had just been ripped away from her family.

YuLong walked over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m here.”

YuHua turned and hugged his waist tightly.

“Take some time to adjust to your new memories on the Plane of Wood. A few of Bao’s descendants already have a cabin set up and are waiting for you. Once we get settled, we’ll see about contacting the Su and Shi Clans, but I’m not sure how that’s going to go, so we need to be prepared.

After getting three nods of agreement, I flicked my fingers and sent everyone into my inner world. That done, it was time to head out.

“System, teleport me to Iron Spear City, located along the western edge of the Central Continent’s Heroes Domain.”

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