Immortal Freeloader 94 (Patreon)

[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 50; Pampering Bonus - 75 (Capped)]

[125x Return - Calligraphy Lesson- Major Immersion]

[125x Return - Verdant Brush Talisman Technique Lesson - Major Immersion]

[125x Return - Nataba Formation Technique Lesson - Perfection]

[125x Return - Palm of Verdant Cleansing - Minor Immersion]

[125x Return - 728 Qi Strands]

“… Don’t waste too much time delivering the message. Things are dangerous. We don’t know if the Tiger Fist army could return. I don’t want you to get hurt. Understood,” she said, referring to our plan. On the surface, she would spend her days working for the Queen, and during the night, stay in the Spring Palace to make sure there was no accident at the stone gate.

In reality, she wanted to focus on being the Regent Queen during the day, and spend her nights relaxing with me.

I was in perfect alignment with that plan, as it allowed me to deal with various things during the day, and spend nights relaxing and studying. It was an excellent balance between seeking new opportunities and improving my already existing skills.

“Don’t forget, I remember,” I answered even as I hugged her one last time. “I want to spend my day meditating in the first place. I think I have some new insights into my Forest Dance. Just try not to enter when I keep the door locked.”

That mention had a point. I had already covered the Spring Palace with enough formations to turn it into my domain, so she wouldn’t notice my absence, and feel like I was inside. I had taken a page out of her book and put a puppet in the room. However, unlike her puppet, mine was supported by several illusions, making it indistinguishable from real me.

The formations were amazing, which made me even more enthusiastic about triggering the Minor Immersion level and improving it even further. It's too bad that it felt too far away. The system returns were highly linked to her initial skill level, so, even with the incredible return rate, I expected it to take a lot of time.

Aisnam left, but I lingered a while, and triggered my skill rewards, immersing myself as the foreign information settled on my mind easily. “Wondrous,” I muttered even as I looked around, taking note of my formation, noticing a couple mistakes I had noticed before. It might have stayed in Perfection, but every time I received a System lesson, my capabilities sharpened further.

I was tempted to overhaul the formation of the Spring Palace completely. But, it required at least a week, so other than spending a few minutes fixing some esoteric mistakes that might have triggered a catastrophic risk, I didn’t stay here, and left the capital through the tunnel.

Outside, things were calm … as calm as things could be. The capital had already lost some of its population earlier, and now, with the Tiger Fist army hovered threateningly — but not from close, they were camping twenty miles away — people were too tense to leave their homes.

The palace guards had taken over the others, and even Connate Realm martial artists were on the walls. A rare sight, as they were supposed to be protecting the Royal family, but understandable. After all, there was no more royal family to protect. Just one Queen that could defend herself better than any Connate Realm guard despite her — fake — injury.

After a brief observation, I decided to pick the meeting spot in the capital, formations allowing me to hide from Aisnam even if she started to get curious. There was a lot of real estate for sale. Disguised as a merchant who was afraid of leaving the city, I purchased a nice home with a large courtyard, as far away from the palace as possible.

While I was confident I could avoid Aisnam’s gaze, no need to make it any easier.

I used one formation stone to set up a weak isolation ward, with some illusions to make sure no mortal or martial artists could actually pass the walls without getting lost, unless they were carrying a stone with an appropriate signature.

Perfect formation skills were very convenient.

Then, I set up a nice message box, one that would send a message to both Markas and the Spring Palace whenever someone had dropped a message.

Essentially, a bulky pager.

Once that was complete, I had written a long, formal letter that had congratulated Aisnam for her success, and wished her even more. I attached an even longer price list, which included anything an apothecary could make, putting as small of a price as I could get away with without making her suspicious.

I even went as far as promising her that, and Bone Refinement Martial artist that she sent would leave as Connate Realm martial artist the next day, and any Skin Refinement artist would only require a week.

It was underselling my abilities by a significant margin, but I didn’t want to look too strong.

Just as I was about to leave, inspiration hit. What if I started teaching Aisnam about cultivation. What would happen then?

With Pearyin, it was a failure, because she started viewing me in a position that was superior, and it didn’t look like it would change. But, I taught her directly.

With Aisnam, I had a chance to do so indirectly.

Technically, it was risky, but I decided to take it nonetheless. After all, as far as the System benefits went, what Aisnam could provide to me was already limited. Some of my skills reached Minor Immersion, and some reached Major Immersion, but for all of them, the next stage was too far away.

With that in mind, I grabbed a few pieces of paper, and started writing a lesson about Nabata formation art, one that explained several tricky points in a way that would help a beginner immensely. I even went as far as imbuing with with some remnant Qi, making it so that the lesson was not just transferred by writing itself, but also the impressions of Qi.

With my calligraphy at Major Immersion, I was able to convey a lot through that writing, while also making it look like it was written by an old master a few decades ago, to answer his disciple’s questions.

And, if those questions were very similar to the points that Aisnam was currently struggling with … what a fortunate coincidence.

“I hope it doesn’t screw it up completely,” I said. From my previous experiences, I was reasonably confident that it wouldn’t, but there was still a certain risk.

Still, it was nothing compared to what other cultivators faced as they fought and struggled for even a scrap, so I didn’t feel like I had any right to complain.

With those preparations complete, I went out, observing the Tiger Fist army, and checking the numbers. I noticed that they were split into two, one large, and one small. The small one was the one that stayed near the capital, and I noticed that there weren’t many Connate Realm martial artists among them.

Just ten.

Well, it was still more than enough to invade multiple cities, but nowhere near enough to actually fight against even an injured cultivator like they believed Aisnam to be. However, it was still large enough that, they could probably fight against any force the capital could realistically send out, or at least retreat safely.

As long as Aisnam stayed inside.

It felt like a bait, but I didn’t bother with it. If it was bait, they weren’t prepared to catch a vicious shark.

“Still, let’s make sure things won’t be reversed,” I said as I established a couple formations outside the city, something I had been avoiding carefully before, afraid of being noticed, but, with my formations ability finally at Perfection, I was confident that they would stay hidden.

Especially since they were doing nothing but detecting Qi passively, radiating none of their own. Essentially, it was a silent web that would alert me if a cultivator stepped into a hundred miles radius of the capital unless that cultivator was trying to keep their presence hidden.

Unfortunately, that was a tradeoff I had to accept to keep the formation hidden.

I might have expanded it even further if I wasn’t running out of the formation stones to stabilize it. I still had some, but I wanted to establish the same thing around Markas, as well as Pearyin’s hiding spot.

“It’s good to have the confidence to defend myself,” I muttered even as I moved on to my next target. The larger portion of the Tiger Fist army, which, to my surprise, wasn’t actually moving toward Markas. Instead, they had split, and targeted the cities closest to the capital.

Curious, I disguised myself as one of them and mixed with the crowd. Hiding myself among a moving army wasn’t particularly challenging. They had several scouts that kept an eye outside, but once I bypassed them easily, it was easy to move around.

An army was a logistical nightmare, so no one paid attention to another disciple running around carrying a box away from restricted areas. As I moved around, I listened to the discussion of the commanders, whose discussions were not a secret from a cultivator.

Soon, I understood their reasoning. The reason they weren’t attacking Markas was easy. They couldn’t, not when the whole excuse of their existence.

I had already given Aisnam the tools to prevent it if she thought that to be important. She could recruit hundreds of Connate realm martial artists and crush the army if she thought the risk was acceptable. And if she thought that it was too suspicious, anything I could do would be even more suspicious.

Most importantly, there was no need for me to take action. Time worked to my benefit.