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My first instinct was to go buy herbs for Rank 3 pills and cultivate as quickly as I could. With another eight months, I expected I could potentially reach at least Grandmaster 3, possibly 4 if I pushed myself hard enough. Having a higher cultivation at a younger age should make me appear more valuable since it would indicate a stronger talent in cultivation.

I thought about walking down this path, but I stopped myself. I’d already spent over four years doing nothing but cultivating. I had told myself I needed to find a way to have more balance in my life, and I had seemingly thrown that idea away the first chance I got. I had felt that it was for good reason since I had to at least reach Grandmaster within my self-imposed time limit of ten years, but it was clear to me that I was walking down the wrong path once again.

Instead of immediately returning to my room to cultivate, or going to the Pavilion to buy herbs to make more pills, I decided to spend some time exploring South Gate City. I wanted to learn more about this place and the sect I was planning to join. I could return to the Pavilion and ask Miss Kang, but relying so heavily on a single source of information was also a bad habit that I needed to get away from.

Still, I couldn’t completely silence the part of my mind that told me that only walking around town would be a waste of time. A part of me felt that doing such a thing could not possibly help me progress, even though I knew it would. I had to consider what it was that I wanted. What was I trying to achieve?

Aside from a general sense of improvement, what I wanted more than anything was a larger storage space which would allow me to fundamentally change the rules of my resets.

As a Martial Grandmaster 1, I could cultivate at a far greater speed than I had the last time I tried expanding it, and I could begin to make serious improvements to its size. I just needed to spend time gathering enough energy to do so.

Passive cultivation only granted me a limited amount of energy, which meant I needed to actively cultivate to grow my space as quickly as possible. It would be best if I had a way to grow my space while also exploring the city. Should I try to learn to actively cultivate while walking around outside?

Cultivating outside of a quiet, controlled environment was generally considered a bad idea. If I didn’t pay enough attention while actively cultivating, something could go wrong with my qi filters, and I might start drawing in impurities, damaging my foundation.

However, I wasn’t overly worried about this. I wouldn’t be using this qi on myself. I would instead be sending it all to the fire seed in my soul. Even if I draw in an extreme amount of impure energy that would harm me personally, the seed shouldn’t care. It just needed to burn energy, it didn’t care what type of energy I sent it.

The other factor in my favor was that even if impurities did enter my body, I could take Purifying Pills to cleanse them afterward. When cultivating for advancement, this was not a great idea because if I had to constantly purify my body, it would mean possibly backsliding on my cultivation level. Since I was a Grandmaster 1 without any qi reserves, I didn’t have to worry about this. Even if I purged all the free qi from my body, it wouldn’t cause any issues.

I didn’t expect to cultivate perfectly at first, and the results would likely be nasty, but I could handle it. The more I practiced, the better I would get. With enough practice, in future lives, I would even be able to do this for regular cultivation without worry. It was a good skill to begin developing, and it would allow me significantly more freedom to cultivate while doing other things. I just had to learn how to do it first.

I spent two more months in my inn room trying to practice cultivating while moving. After that, I spent another three months just walking around the city while cultivating. I didn’t have many interactions with people during that time, but it did help me develop a better feel for the city.

Once I was comfortable with being active outdoors while cultivating, I tried to do more than just walk around. The more I needed to concentrate on something else, the more impurities I drew in. If I tried to talk to someone, the quality of the qi I cultivated would drop significantly. However, the more I practiced, the better it got.

While my cultivation speed was greatly reduced during this time, sending all of my energy to expand my storage space as a Grandmaster 1 had an incredible effect. After these five months, it was nearly sixty times larger than it had been when I started. I had a long way to go to achieve my dreams, but this felt like significant progress.

With only a few months before the sect began recruiting, I was finally ready to begin my research. The timeline was tight, but that was okay. I could allow myself to delay a year if it came to that.

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The first place I thought about going to learn as much as I could about the Nine Rivers Sect was the Yellow Orchid Academy. If they were as tightly connected to the sect as I had been led to believe, they should be able to provide me with a significant amount of information regarding it.

The cost of 5 million gold for a year of classes as a Grandmaster was significant, but I could have afforded it if I needed to. I would’ve needed to make over a thousand pills, but it could’ve been done. The big thing that stopped me was that it was too late to enroll for classes before the next Entrance Exam, so if I wanted to take classes there, I would need to wait nearly half a year.

If this was my only option, I would have considered it more deeply, but while the Yellow Orchid Academy might be the best school in the city, there were others. Several groups had set up smaller cram schools focused on only teaching what they thought was needed to pass the test to enter the sect.

I enrolled in one called the River’s Tributary. They claimed to know exactly what was needed to become a sect disciple. Based on what Miss Kang had told me, I didn’t exactly believe them, but it was better than nothing.

When I arrived, over four dozen Grandmasters were already waiting in the classroom for our lesson to begin. The teacher walked in wearing a dark blue silk hanfu and carrying a red folding fan. He had a tidy short beard and his hair was meticulously arranged into a tight bun. The feeling I got from him was that of an accomplished Confucian scholar.

“The truth,” he said, cooling himself with his fan, “is that entering the Nine River Sect is simple. As long as you have any ability whatsoever, you will be able to enter. If you\'re currently in such a bad position that you are unable to enter the sect, I cannot help you in the short time we have. It would be better for you to enroll in a regular class and wait until next year. Instead, this course focuses on how to quickly improve your results to gain a slightly better position with the sect.”

In front of the class, he uncovered a large diagram engraved on the wall.

“When you enter, you will be placed into one of several different categories. You will all be disciples of the sect, but those who enter the sect are divided between servant, outer, inner, core, and chosen disciples. Each rank has different responsibilities and will receive substantially different benefits. Beyond these five ranks, disciples are further subdivided, being given a grade between zero and three. If you are a grade zero servant disciple, you will receive nothing from the sect and spend every moment serving them.”

He looked around the room, meeting each of our eyes one by one. “You do not want to be a grade zero servant. I will do my best in the following weeks to help each of you improve by at least one grade.”

The instructor picked up several small manuals and began handing them out to the class.

“These contain the basics of what we will cover. You may have been told that no one knows what is needed to succeed in the exams. This is only partly true. We have studied the backgrounds of countless sect disciples and have come to clear conclusions about what can get you a better rating. Most important is this: go wide, not deep. Even if your combat ability is better than every Chosen in the sect, if that is the only thing you are good at, you will still only be a servant disciple.”

Several more instructors walked into the room and stood against the front wall.

“These will be your teachers. Go through the booklet I handed out and identify your weakest skill. That should also be the one that is easiest to improve. By raising it as much as possible, you will have your best chance at succeeding in the Entrance Exam.”

The booklet listed several different topics the school covered such as general cultivation knowledge, soul cultivation, alchemy, herbalism, and beast taming. It seemed to cover nearly everything I could think of related to cultivation. I looked at each of the topics briefly, but I knew which one I had to choose. Even before opening the booklet, if there was one topic that I had avoided more than any other, I knew what it was. I needed to learn to fight.

I walked into a large open courtyard where only a few students had gathered. The ground was smooth-packed dirt, and there were no trees or rocks to get in our way. Our teacher was a woman wearing black robes with the arms and legs strapped tight to her body with leather cords.

“Before I can train you, I need to see what level you are all at.” She pointed to a small weak-looking man. “You, step forward. No techniques, just basic qi control.”

He stepped forward, gave a short bow, then raised his fists. The instructor bowed in return, but instead of simply raising her fists, she charged at him.

The man jumped to the side, avoiding the charge.

The teacher swung around, punching out into thin air in his direction.

A bolt of qi shot from her fist and headed straight toward the man’s chest.

He met the burst of qi with his fist, and it shattered, dispersing it into the air.

The instructor was waiting for this. She used it as an opening to rush forward and kick the man in the abdomen, sending him staggering backward.

“Good,” she said, returning to a more relaxed posture. “There are things we can work on, but your fundamentals are solid.”

She looked at the other people in class and settled on me. “You, step up.”

After approaching, I did as the previous man had and gave her a bow before raising my fists.

She charged at me.

I didn’t have time to move out of the way.

She punched out at me.

I raised both arms to block it.

The strength of her strike was enough to blow me backward, knock me to the ground, and send me sprawling.

“Get up!” Her eyes narrowed in annoyance.

I stood.

She rushed at me again, but much slower this time. She swung her right arm to backhand me.

I again tried to block with both arms, but the blow was too powerful. I was knocked back down to the ground.

She looked at me and sighed. “You have no chance. Normally, we recommend going wide, shoring up your weaknesses instead of focusing on your strengths, but it won’t be possible for you to learn to fight without years of practice.”

“What?” I was stunned by her assessment.

“You lack even the most basic instincts that should have been drilled into you as a Disciple. You don’t even try to use your qi to help you move more quickly or fortify your body to block my attacks. Learning these skills as a Grandmaster is incredibly difficult, they need to develop along with your cultivation base. So, yeah, you may want to just focus on other topics at this point.”

I closed my eyes and accepted her judgment, knowing the truth of her words.

However, while I understood her message, I stayed in the combat class. Even though I accepted she may be right about being unable to perfect these skills as a Grandmaster, they were what I needed to learn the most, and gaining knowledge here would put me in a better position for the next time around.