Chapter 442: Impartiality - 442
Zhu Yi entered the rogue cultivators guild and queued up at the crystal pad line. Not much time passed before his turn came.
Zhu Yi took out his card and scanned it on the screen. The words, "Welcome Zhu Yi", popped up on the screen.
Zhu Yi tapped on the screen and the words went away, soon followed by three icons. Zhu Yi clicked on the personal information icon. In addition to his name, cultivation, and rank, there was now a small, partly filled up bar below the rank letter.
This was what showed how close a person was to increasing their rank.
Zhu Yi clicked off and went to the missions icon. His mission was completed now and he could accept money in one of three ways. One, store it in the crystal network instead of receiving gold, receive the gold, or a combination of both.
Zhu Yi chose a combination of both. He took out a few gold to survive with and kept the rest of the reward in the rogue cultivator guild network.
Zhou Fan sighed at the convenience of it all.
Cultivators had truly changed the world.
Although the crystal pad network was a good system, there was one reason that no similar system had appeared that covered the filament. This sort of thing was more or less useless to higher level cultivators.
Firstly, it would take a lot of resources and energy to maintain it across the entire filament. Secondly, there were too many strange abilities. It would not be ridiculous for someone to be able to mess with it with some sort of technique, divine physique, or innate gift. They could use it to steal information or, if there was a banking system like in the crystal pad network, rob others. Thirdly, nobody had ever really cared about such a thing. Sure, it was a convenience for lower level cultivators, but higher level cultivators had countless methods to communicate when necessary, such as communication talismans, which did not need much of a network at all. Just a connection to another talisman.
Zhu Yi received his money at the counter and left the rogue cultivators guild. After a good night of sleep, he returned again and found another mission.
On the way towards the mission location, Zhou Fan spoke. "Are you sure you don't want to join a sect and increase your cultivation more? At this rate, it will take an extremely long time to achieve anything."
Zhu Yi nodded. "I've already thought about it. If I go to a sect now, I'll be more or less worthless. If I wait until I have more talent, I'll be valued much more and receive more. If I join a sect talentless and become more and more talented, wouldn't they get suspicious? In that case, it's too risky. And all of that is based on the possibility of actually being accepted."
Zhou Fan nodded. "It's your life. You live it however you want."
Zhu Yi felt reassured and continued running at his pace. Everytime he took a break, he would cultivate, but he was not getting much anywhere. Even with spirit stones, he had taken 300 days to reach the 5th level of the Qi gathering realm, much less without them.
It had been many days since he had met with the nascent soul realm old man and Bai Wei'er. Zhu Yi had had a lot of time to think about things, and the more he thought about it, the calmer he became.
He understood that the nascent soul realm old man had looked down upon him for his inferior cultivation and little to no potential. He also understood that Bai Wei'er looked down upon him for his inferior background and little to no potential.
However, would they act the same when he was stronger? If he was the strongest in the world, would they dare to disdain him? Would they even think about looking down upon him? Would they even dare to breathe loudly in his presence? No, they would not.
Zhu Yi understood this. He understood that both the old man and Bai Wei'er were pathetic people. They were people that would act arrogant or superior in front of him, but would not dare to do so in front of someone else.
This reminded Zhu Yi of a saying he had read from a fairy tale.
Bully the weak, fear the strong. It was the motto of pathetic people.
Zhu Yi did not want to become like them when he was stronger. He would not look down on someone because they were weaker or had a worse background. He would not fear everyone who was stronger or had a better background.
While taking a break, Zhu Yi had told all of this to Zhou Fan.
"It is good to think that way. While comprehending the Cosmic Dao, I thought of many phrases in my head. One of them went like this: The earth and the stars do not take sides. They are impartial. They regard all individuals as insignificant, as though they were playthings made of straw. The wise are also impartial. To them, all people are equal and alike."
Zhu Yi nodded. "So I am right."
"Sort of. There is no one correct mindset. For example, if you were to treat all people equal and alike, then wouldn't a saint be treated the same as a mass murder? If you helped both survive a dangerous situation, one would go and help others, while the other would spread more harm." Zhou Fan said.
"What is correct is living like you want to live, and living in that way firmly." Zhou Fan added.
Zhou Fan's words gave Zhu Yi a lot to think about. Zhu Yi laid down and thought about how he wanted to live.
As for Zhou Fan, he did not need to think about it too much. He did not interact with others much and his only true goal was to increase his cultivation. Everything else was having fun along the way.
He did not bully the weak, and if there was someone stronger than him, then that would mean he is dead. Either that or everything he knew was false, like fish in a fish tank, and he had no reason to live.
Chapter 443: Giant Bees - 443
Zhu Yi continued running, and without a hitch, completed the mission. He carried with him more beast parts and got more money. He was not yet even close to ranking up in the rogue cultivators guild.
As cultivators, everything seemed to take much more time. To cultivators, time was mostly ignorable. Perhaps it was a side effect of Qi, but no matter how much time a cultivator spent cultivating, they were almost never tired or bored of it.
Zhu Yi took another mission and soon left the rogue cultivator guild. Every time, Zhu Yi would give Zhou Fan another 1000 beast cores to absorb, but its effect was not as great as Zhu Yi had hoped.
While running to complete the 6th mission, Zhu Yi sat on a log and complained. "Master, this is taking forever. How much do you need to recover more?"
Zhou Fan sighed. "I can't tell. Recovering seems to be different from cultivating. It isn't necessarily defined by realms. I can feel my power increasing slightly with every core, but I haven't felt a great recovery since waking up from the ring. I can't say how hard it will be for me to recover, but you should be patient."
Zhu Yi nodded and calmed himself.
He mumbled "The wise are not conspicuous in their actions or given to much talking. When troubles arise, they are not irritated."
Zhou Fan watched as he mumbled. Zhu Yi seemed to enjoy hearing about Zhou Fan's Cosmic Dao comprehension. During the fight, innumerable phrases had popped up in his head. He occasionally told them to Zhu Yi.
Not everything within the sayings was applicable, but it all felt right and made sense. Even if not living in such a way, the phrases could give inspiration to anyone.
Zhou Fan enjoyed living freely and would never change, but Zhu Yi was at the bottom of the entire universe. Learning about different ways to live, such as following the philosophy of the Cosmic Dao, could be considered helpful.
Zhou Fan would make sure that Zhu Yi would live how Zhu Yi wanted, but he could at least occasionally impart some wisdom into him.
After a rest, Zhu Yi stood back up and continued running.
After a while, Zhu Yi took his ninth mission.
"Are you sure? This can be considered an unnecessary risk." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi nodded. "I am sure. Cultivators cannot live in too much peace or they will become content."
This time, Zhu Yi was taking a slightly more dangerous mission. It was still to gather body parts from Qi gathering beasts, but the location was less structured than the other places. In other words, it was not impossible for a foundation establishment realm beast to roam around the area that Qi gathering realm beasts usually stayed at.
Used to going out, Zhu Yi ran on the long path. Every time he did so, he gained a new respect for those who created the path. It was so much more convenient to run on a path than in the forest.
He could simply zone out without running into trees or tripping over tree roots.
"Damn trashy village pathmakers."
After a few days, Zhu Yi arrived. There was no marker or sign, just a change from path to forest.
Zhu Yi looked at his map, confirming he was in the right area, and entered into the forest.
Along the way, it was eerily quiet. So quiet that not even crickets could be heard.
Zhu Yi had studied what he was hunting and knew why. Compared to his other hunting missions, this one was more dangerous not only because of the possibility of Foundation establishment realm beasts appearing, but because his target lived in groups.
Suddenly, Zhu Yi's head snapped over and he pulled out a sword. He had bought one after the first few missions. The sword was the weapon of the cultivator, or at least that was what Zhou Fan had said.
Even Zhu Yi could sense his master's bias.
Zhu Yi put his back to a tree and calmly waited. As time had passed, he had also gained some courage when hunting.
The buzzing sound was getting closer and closer. As Zhu Yi saw a shadow to his right, he swung his sword. A large bee was cut in half. Zhu Yi charged out and waved his sword around with little experience. Luckily, the beasts were not intelligent themselves.
Before the group of bees could react, half of the 8 were dead. Giant bees, in comparison to normal bees, traveled in smaller numbers.
If they were to travel in the hundreds, they would no longer be something that Qi gathering realm cultivators could deal with.
The giant bees were a fourth of the size of a human, and their stingers were horrifying to anyone who saw them.
Getting stabbed would be like getting poked by a needle the size of two regular pencils end to end.
As 4 bees came, Zhu Yi managed to slash one and roll away from the others. The bees were fast, but not intelligent. Zhu Yi repeated, letting them charge, slashing one, and rolling away. Before long, he was cutting open 8 corpses. Unfortunately, the first four had already lost the majority of their Qi before Zhu Yi could get to them.
"Is it worth it?" Zhou Fan asked.
"I can hunt faster and get paid more. I think so." Zhu Yi responded.
Zhou Fan nodded. He let Zhu Yi make his own opinions. After all, he could barely help at all in his current state.
Giant Bees traveled in groups up to 8, and often smaller. Zhu Yi only ran into a few such groups. Before the day ended, he had already completed the mission. Around the 500 mark, he had heard much louder buzzing from afar and retreated intelligently.
Luckily, that was the only close call.
As night fell, Zhu Yi was running on the path. In his loan bag were 1000 needles.
"Not bad for a single day. Around 700 cores. Will you keep doing these missions?" Zhou Fan asked.
Zhu Yi shook his head. "Placing myself into constant danger is not smart, but stupid. I'm not talented enough for that. I'll just do it occasionally."
Zhou Fan chuckled and nodded.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
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