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.
Chapter 444: The Assassination Guild - 444
Zhu Yi returned to White Palace city and turned in the mission as usual. Besides the slightly higher pay, there was not much difference.
He soon took his tenth mission, but upon entering White Palace city after completing it and walking towards the rogue cultivator guild, he saw a man in an alley wave him over.
"That's not suspicious at all." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi looked at the man, thinking deeply, before walking over.
"Are you sure you want to take that risk?" Zhou Fan asked.
"Nobody dares to kill within White Palace city. I should be fine." Zhu Yi said.
Zhou Fan sighed. "The young are truly brave."
Zhu Yi walked up to the man and the man went deeper into the alleyway, leading Zhu Yi from afar.
Zhu Yi followed while gripping on his sword. Before long, the man entered a door at the side. The door remained open and Zhu Yi entered.
Inside, there were downward stairs. A red light gave the place an eerie feeling, and while Zhu Yi considered leaving, he eventually walked down.
The stairs did not go too deep before turning, and Zhu Yi saw an Iron door.
Looking around, Zhu Yi walked up and knocked on the door. A slit in the door slid open.
Eyes looked at Zhu Yi before the slit closed and the door made a noise.
As Zhu Yi stepped back, the door opened.
What entered his eyes was what appeared to be a large tavern.
"You must be Zhu Yi. Follow me." The man who opened the door said.
The man had a scar covering his face that garnered Zhu Yi's attention. Half of his face seemed to have suffered some sort of burn mark.
Zhu Yi did not stare, and followed the man through the room.
There were many tables in the room, and a large amount of them were filled. Everyone in the tavern-like room seemed to wear dark clothes and/or have a large scar.
A few stared at him for a moment, but most ignored him and continued their conversations.
After walking across the room, Zhu Yi was led through a door and up a flight of stairs, before the man leading him knocked on a door at the end of an otherwise doorless hallway.
"Enter."
The man turned and walked away. Zhu Yi walked forward and entered the room.
Inside it was what appeared to be an office. Behind a desk was a man wearing both dark clothes and with a scar. He had a cigar in his mouth. To the side was a fireplace and strewn around the room were papers.
As he walked towards the desk, Zhu Yi also noticed a crystal pad laid down.
"A big shot." Zhou Fan said.
"You are Zhu Yi." The man said after a moment.
"I am."
"We'll get straight to it. We've been observing you for a few days and want you to join us." The man said, only pausing to take a puff of his cigar.
Zhu Yiwas confused. "Join who?"
"The dark side of the rogue cultivator guild, the Assassination guild." The man said.
Seeing Zhu Yi silent, the man continued. "The light side of the rogue cultivator guild is the rogue cultivator guild that you know. It operates by killing beasts, trading, exchanging information, or any other way to make profit."
"Then, there is the dark side, the assassination guild. We are the same, but deal with stuff that would better remain unknown to the general public, though there is no lack of people who know of us."
Zhu Yi asked a question. "What do you mean by stuff that would better remain unknown to the general public?"
"Assassination, beast slavery, though human slavery is illegal throughout the world, spying, poisons, kidnapping, essentially anything that makes a profit without going too far." The man explained.
"And why would you want me to join you?" Zhu Yi asked.
He felt that he didn't fit the character at all. Not to mention that he was not wearing dark clothes and did not have a scar.
"As I said, we've been observing you, and we have no lack of experience in recruiting. I won't say we have a 100% recruit rate, but it's in the high 90's."
"I still don't understand. Why me?" Zhu Yi asked.
The man sighed. "There is a lot of stuff that can be observed in secret. You met the "Doorman" of White Palace city, so you should know about those beasts. Since you've met him, you should have felt his arrogance. Do you remember that well?"
Zhu Yi nodded. It was still fresh in his mind.
"Not many can simply accept such treatment. They may go out and attempt to secretly spread the information of those beasts, or they may start plotting to get revenge, but they always end up dead. You have met that old man and are alive. That is the first sign." The man said.
He continued. "Next, you are faithfully working for no apparent reason. Perhaps you don't have a purpose, perhaps you have no ambition and are saving up to retire, though that seems unlikely based on your ninth mission. Maybe you owe a large sum of money. There could be any reason, but it should stand that you need something from those missions, and we, the assassination guild, can help you."
"How about that? Do you need more?" The man asked, leaning back in his chair.
"You say that you can provide me what I need?" Zhu Yi asked.
"Almost anything."
Zhu Yi paused and thought. "Even live foundation establishment beasts?"
The man looked at him calmly. "Enslaved? You don't have the ability to do anything worth that."
"Not enslaved, just alive and captured."
The man thought. "That changes things. It is possible. Do you need it to be weakened?"
"No. Just trapped and alive so that I can kill it from outside the cage without being in danger."
"Such a thing is not too much to ask. I won't ask why you need it, but you'll have to earn it. You've seen the benefits. Now, let me introduce you to the work."
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
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