Brown City

"Too easy!" Jack smiled. With this, at least theoretically, he gained access to the substance soul realm's powers for a few minutes each day. But, unfortunately for him, things were not that easy.

His system was able to swallow the transmigrator's cheat. That means the grandpa theoretically should act as his cheat, but Jack doesn't expect that to happen. In fact, he doesn't dare to take the grandpa out, as he might decide to self-destruct and take Jack with him.

The reason his system was able to swallow Grandpa so easily was simply because of how cheats, in general, work. Rachel's systems tend to merge and form stronger ones; this is why transmigrators cannot be true friends—their interests are in direct conflict; to become stronger, they must consume the other party's cheat.

Whoever has the stronger system can directly swallow the other party's system, but there is a catch.

Just now, Jack swallowed Grandpa because his system was more powerful. But even after swallowing him, Grandpa kept his personality and didn't become loyal to Jack. Simply put, there is a cooldown between swallows. Jack can no longer swallow any other system until the cooldown. If he does, then he may lose control.

The system's power is even more important for transmigrators than the cultivation base. After all, if one's system is powerful, they can easily defeat their transmigrator opponents. But cultivation base is still important. Just now, if the transmigrator's personal strength was at the divine soul level, Jack may have been able to steal his system but probably would have been killed afterward. 

Jack preferred to kill the transmigrator first and collect Grandpa later, but that was obviously impossible. With Grandpa able to use the power of the soul substance realm, there was no way Jack would have succeeded in killing the transmigrator.

"It probably takes around ten years for me to absorb Grandpa completely," he thought. Ten years is short, maybe because the combination of the two systems he had was more powerful than the average system.

Snapping his fingers, the transmigrator in front of him, who was just staring at him with confusion, exploded into a mist of blood.

"Temporary Task completed – reward: 25 years of cultivation practice." Seeing the system prompt, Jack smiled and snapped again. With one snap, the whole village was reduced to an ice world, directly killing everyone in the village.

Jack doesn't enjoy killing people; still, he prefers if this matter remains a secret. There are ways to read the memory of the dead, but those are very advanced techniques, which Jack simply doesn't believe the government officials would bother to use.

After all, only 200 'worthless' mortals died; they are like grass, growing continuously, so who would bother to investigate it? If it persisted and wiped out millions of mortals, then the Icefall sect and Viscount John Brown might care. A small village being wiped out, however, is not eye-catching.

…

Years went by, and the year Jack was waiting for finally arrived. This year, he has to meet Master Daoist Stormy, the mild supreme elder of the great Brown dynasty. After searching for years, they didn't discover anything, so Daoist Stormy ordered them to invite Jack to Brown City.

Brown City is so far away that it still takes over 2,000 years to get there, even with a nascent soul cultivation base. Jack can use 'As Far as Heavens' and teleport there in a moment, but that would trigger a massive tribulation, maybe as strong as the substance soul realm or even higher. Jack doesn't know the exact formula to calculate it, but it should be at least the substance soul realm.

Fortunately, Master Daoist Stormy sent a teleportation token along with the letter. The token was a treasure at the level of the void soul; one can travel to the designated location using the token. Anyone can use it, even mortals.

Jack wanted to put everything down and go there, but he didn't. First, he looked at everything, ensuring the sect was going well. After the purge last time, he has discovered the loyal batch of disciples; he plans on another round of purge. To do so, he has to place himself in a weak situation and provoke idiotic and disloyal disciples into rebelling; anyone who takes the bait would be killed.

This strategy has paid off, at least so far. The higher-ups of this generation are all extremely loyal. Even though Jack wasn't present, they never made the smallest problem. It also may be because of the punishments that scared them off. In any case, it is a fact that they have been behaving well.

Faith left a while ago, and Amber returned from the previous headquarters. She became the sect leader, while Faith took over as leader of the previous headquarters. As the sect master, Amber was granted total autonomy; Jack didn't bother interfering in anything. But even at full power, Amber doesn't have that much practical power because now they have many powerful rival forces. The mortal talents are mostly controlled by the Brown dynasty; the Heavens Way sect's only source of talent is the land in the former continent where Faith was sent.

The immortal affairs are regulated mostly by the Icefall sect, while immortal resources, auctions, markets, and cities are mostly controlled by the Brown dynasty. Mortal cities are also controlled by the Brown dynasty. Amber has power within the sect and not much beyond that.

Jack is sure that no one will attack them for now, so he turns around and activates the token.

…

The observer of Viscount John, who was sent here to 'protect' Heaven's Way, saw Jack disappear after stroking a token and reported it. After reporting it, he gathered his stuff and returned. As a divine soul cultivator, he earned many contribution points fulfilling this task, but simply put, his fortune wasn't proportional to the risks he was taking.

…

Looking at the red moon in the sky, John Brown looked at Master Pink, his other substance soul.

"It's so weird to look at myself without the help of a mirror!" John said.

"Are we really the same?" asked Master Pink, who was beginning to go off the rails.

"Hey, other me! How can you even ask this question? We need ten substance souls, but we struggle to keep it together before the third substance soul!" John felt disappointed in himself.

"Let's go our separate ways!" Master Pink suggested.

"We are bound together! Our luck has the same force! We cannot go our separate ways!" he said.

"What if only one of us survives?" asked Master Pink.

"In that case, the issue gets solved."

"Why am I asking questions from you?" Master Orange, who was also the soul of Master Buttons, asked.

The two have the same mind and memory, or at least they ought to have, so they shouldn't need to ask anything. Noticing that things were going downhill, John said to his other substance soul, "But we have Lucy! She is the link connecting us!"

Master Pink remembered her beautiful face and nodded. Indeed, Lucy is their link. After Master Pink left, John left the room with a panicked face and went to the library to find books regarding this. It was very close; if it wasn't for Lucy, Master Pink might have completely split from him.

…

Daoist Stormy was the supreme elder who governed the dynasty; she lived in Brown City. At this time, a certain teleportation station in Brown City suddenly lit up, and a handsome man emerged. It was Jack.

Looking around, Jack was not surprised. But they would have been very astonished if it were anyone besides him. Brown City, the capital of such a vast dynasty, was very ordinary; one could not tell its difference from an ordinary city. But again, Jack wrote these, so he knew the inside story.

Brown City was, without a doubt, the most advanced and powerful city in the nearby territory. It was actually not ordinary at all; it was a city with over 100 underground floors, each floor as vast as the total surface area of smaller planets. Yet, even though most of the city was actually underground, nobody living there had any idea about it. It was the most amazing thing because even several soul realm cultivators were kept in the dark; only void soul and soul transformation cultivators knew about the inside story of the city. The reason for this build was to both preserve its traditional looks and to avoid a massive sprawling city. In fact, around 20% of all mortals of the entire continent lived in the city. These mortals were off books, not part of the talent-sharing deals with the four great sects. The leaders of the four great sects knew about Brown City but couldn't ask for talent sharing from the population in the city. After all, the Brown dynasty entirely controlled Brown City, so the sects had no leverage.

A man in a blue robe, which had red stripes, came and bowed, then said, "Daoist Master is summoning your honor!"

The man in blue-red cloth had the cultivation base of a soul substance, but still, in the face of someone his master accepted as a guest, he didn't dare show off in the slightest. Jack nodded and followed the man. After only one minute, they reached a normal outdoor restaurant. Mortals were walking around, not knowing that someone was seated not far from them, who was one of the strongest beings on the continent.

Jack went forward, bowed, and respectfully sat on the other side. The restaurant's server came and brought food. Looking at it, Jack realized it was ordinary mortal food with nothing special about it. Thinking about Master Stormy's personality, he secretly smiled.

According to his setting, Master Stormy was the most approachable soul transformation cultivator on the continent and the surrounding area. She was quite kind, at the very least, providing for a prosperous life at least for mortals living in the city. Lifting her spoon, she didn't say anything. Instead, she filled her spoon and put it in her mouth. The food was mostly liquid, so they didn't use chopsticks and forks and used spoons. Jack also took his spoon and ate.

After slowly eating, she finally wiped her lips and said, "Master Jack, may I ask a question?"

Jack said, "Of course, senior!"

She said, "Did you like the soup or the boiled vegetables?"

Jack said, "I liked the vegetables better!"

She was taken aback; it was unexpected for her.

She said, "How is it possible? The vegetable one was just awful; I barely ate it! Even after millions of years, I still think eating boiled vegetables is one of the worst experiences."

"Yes, Your Majesty, it may at first taste bad, but it is healthier than soup, which has meat. I can change my taste if necessary if it is good for my health," he said.

"You can change your taste? Well, maybe people like you didn't have an established taste to begin with."

Jack didn't say anything.

Master Immortal Stormy said, "Let's talk about your taste in cultivation techniques!" She smiled and winked at him.