In the two days he trained inside the rented room, Ning had an amazing advancement. First off, the Titan Bull Titan Body. Because of his previous foundation built in the body training the entire first level advanced rapidly along side his little bull and he mastered it within the two days and was at initial mastery of level 2. Obviously his development was thanks to his little Titan Bull he named Tyrant.
As for the Sky Fish Sky River Ascension, he has gained initial mastery of it but he needs someone to fight to use this. That said to his surprise Tora was able to understand it even better than Ning and reached Low Success.
As his time ended Ning packed up his things, this included putting Tyrant back into the ring to transport him, and left. Before exiting he found Deacon Bon and handed back the two Jade slips and thanked him for the help before leaving.
Flying back with Tora Ning finally reached his home where he found that his mother was training with a thin sword and her opponent was one of the old butlers who was keeping up with her quite easily. On the side two of the little maid girls were breathing quite raggedly.
As soon as they saw him they pushed themselves up and stood before did a curtsy, “Welcome back young master Ning.” They said very tired.
“You can rest.” He said and the two nodded before sitting down and looking a bit more graceful but they were clearly fatigued.
“Mother, what are you doing?” Ning asked.
“Just sharpening my sword skills again. It has been years since I could find someone worthy.” She said with a glint.
“I am most impressed Miss, this old man is already High Success Xiantian but your swordsmanship can make this old man’s hair stand on end.” The old butler said with a smile while his face was covered in sweat.
“Oh please, I am extremely rusty compared to before. I am just hoping I can recover even half of my strength that I had before.” She said sadly.
“Oh yes, Young master Ning, this card had arrived this morning. Starting today you have daily work to do for the sect.” The old butler said and pulled out a letter and soon after a small box. “Also these came and the young man that delivered it said it was basic Rider equipment.” He explained.
Ning took the card and box and opened the card.
‘To Outer Disciple of Rider Hall, Bo Ning
Starting the day you acquire this letter, you are to report to the Hall of Jobs. The first day you report there and but afterwards you will do your job daily. For a complete quota you will get a number of contribution points as means of pay from the sect.
The equipment set are of utmost importance so regular maintenance is required.’
The card ended there after reading Ning pulled out the identification card and sent his spiritual sense inside and looked at the map. With a small inquiry he found that the Hall of Jobs was within the commoners city at the base of the sects outer sect mountain as were countless other halls. The families that come to the sect can also earn contribution points by means of jobs and slowly expand their horizon and enroll their left over children or family members into different kinds of arts and start to supply things such as pills, weapons, armor, etc. All of this is sold in the halls within the city.
After finding this Ning put the card away after folding it up and stored the card as well before opening the box and what he found was a pair of gloves. Besides them were some kind of gem on a metal pendant. On top was a letter which Ning took and opened it up.
‘This is outer sect disciple basic Rider equipment. The gloves are magic artifacts which connect to the gems. These gems should be placed on Dao Beasts and the metal pendant around the gem will merge with the skin and can be removed with your thought. These gems and gloves can allow the rider to transmit his meridians into the Dao Beast without direct contact which will allow the beast to aid in the jobs performed by the disciple. Note there is a 30 meter range around the gloves. You cannot pass that range between the gems and gloves if the meridians are active. If you wish for better equipment than work hard and buy it at the equipment hall. Also the gems are free and should you hatch another Dao Beast you can easily acquire another gem.’
Ning’s eyes become wide as he reads the information and giddy. This would aide him extremely. If he could merge without touching it would make things so much easier for him in the future if he ever got a heavy job and needed help.
He quickly puts the gloves on and takes the two gems and calls out Tyrant and quickly places the little gem on this forehead and as it said the pendant merged painlessly into his chest.
He did the same to Tora and turns to the gloves. He saw it was a bit big but that was probably to give room to grow but he couldn’t feel anything.
“Young master, you need to brand it with your Spiritual Sense.” The butler said.
He explained how to do that and Ning did that after learning properly and suddenly the gloves tighten becoming a perfect fit and he could feel the two gems so he expanded his meridians into the two beasts and after a moment Tora grew large while Tyrant grew to the size of a common animal bull but this was still quite infant stage. He had only just hatched and was only Low Success Qi refining. His size was only so tiny before because Dao Beasts have a tiny size for easy transport.
“Wow this is great. Now I don’t need to touch them to connect to them.” He said and walked over and pat the head of the bull. The horns were still round little stubs but the Titan Bull affectionately headbutted him without much strength.
The little maids looked on longingly but they knew it was up to Ning to decided if they can cultivate and even than they were only his servants meaning it would be hard for them to become sect disciples.
“Mother, it seems I have to do some kind of job.” He said.
“It is required of outer disciples. There is no free meal for slacking only for Inner disciples but even then they are given the choice of doing a mission once every month or if you leave it be for 3 months you will be assigned a mission and the only time this isn’t counted is when you report closed doors cultivation which usually lasts larger than this time.” The butler explained.
“Ning, don’t complain, you were able to join the sect and your growth will be leaps and bounds faster than outside also with the help of your two Dao Beasts you can get it done quickly.” She said with a smile.
“Yes mother. I shall go see to this then.” He said.
They all nodded and Ning sat on Tora while withdrawing Tyrant and flew off.
***
Within the Geo Royal family Sect there exists the head clan, which is the royal family, and three noble clans. The Dai clan, a clan of Magi specializing in pure magic, the Miya clan, a clan of Qi Cultivators and the Zhao Clan, a Rider Clan.
These three were servant clans of the royal family before its ascension and during the building of the nation they took part in forming the sect and are such the three leading clans who hold the most influence in the Geo empire.
Even so none of these clan will benefit their children until they reach the inner sect. As such the children of these large sects, as long as they possess the innate talent, they will enter the outer sect without protection so as to temper themselves before reaching the inner sect.
At the current time, there are between 10 to 20 such high ranking people and even if they don’t have the position and rank ‘active’ in the outer sect, no one will offend them because once they enter the inner sect they regain some privileges and work for the rest. Still this is enough to put fear any anyone because of the power and influence these clans have in the sect.
Of course it's not just these clans since all the disciples will bring their family with them so there are as many clans as there are disciples of only a bit less.
As for the city built at the base of the outer sect, even if it looks small from afar seeing it from the huge mountain, the place is incredibly big.
Anyway, of the people of the Zhao clan, one in particular holds the most attention and that is the young miss of the 3rd wife of the clan head, Zhao Rinrin. She is currently 13 and is one of the most talented people in her generation having tested Blue color within the Rider’s innate talent crystal pillars.
What is also unique about this girl is that unlike common people she train demon beasts. Even when her family tried to persuade her against it she found an ice element Snow Devil Ape which resonated Gold compatibility with her and later she once again searched for a Flying type demon once she gained enough contribution points and picked up the Wind element, Great Harpy.
What is strange and captivating about her is that the Infernal Energy refined by her during the hatching caused a unique effect where her previously silky black hair turned Snow white and during the second hatching her white sclera turned black and her black eyes turned red.
It gave her the mysterious appearance of a beauty from a different world. At the current moment this girl had landed in front of the Hall of Jobs. She had been called because she had previously missed several days due to unannounced closed doors cultivation when she gained insight into her Dao Beasts Wind element and a few other abilities and so she quickly went in but had forgotten to announce it or tell her servants to do the same.
As she stepped down from the back of the harpy it quickly began the size of a small bird and landed on her shoulder and looked around like a hawk at the people who were awed by her beauty.
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Harpy are a somewhat humanoid demon. They possess a human like torso, still covered in feathers but it is there, the face is humanoid while their hair on their head are actually beautiful long features. When expanded to full size though, hers grows to almost 6 meters tall and releases a bloodthirsty aura of malice.
On her other shoulder a small little ape was hanging while also glaring around. Both of these had gold compatibility and were deadly protective of her. As she walked in a sudden noise attracts her attention and she looks back only to see a Flying Tiger Fish bursting through the air and make a quick turn making a cloud of dust as it stopped.
“Oi! Watch it!” roared the crowd that had previously been awed by Zhao Rinrin’s beauty.
She narrowed her eyes and waved her hand causing a burst of wind to clear the dust away. What she saw was a boy around her age who was getting off the flying fish and was petting the large beast as it shrank down and flew to his shoulder. Suddenly a small little brown calf appeared.
“Ay Tyrant how did you get out!?” Ning said looking down at the Titan Bull who was looking up at him and gave a little moo.
“Alright, just stay close okay.” He said and suddenly looked up and froze. His eyes met with Zhao Rinrin and he was completely stunned.
Just like any other person he was entranced by hear beauty but unlike him he had two gold color connections right next to him and the next second Tora bite into his ear and Tyrant headbut his right leg hard enough to hurt.
“Ouch!” He said complaining, “What was that for?!” He shouted.
A few people in the crowd chuckled at his.
When he looked back all he saw was long snow white hair vanishing into the building. “Who was that?” He wondered
After a minute he shrugged and walked in as well calling Tyrant who was huffing at him while petting Tora to calm him down.
What he didn’t notice were several eyes that were glaring at him with ill intent but his figure vanished and they simply sneered and quickly ran away.
Inside Ning looked around and very quickly a young man at the Large Success Qi refining stage. Although he looked to be in his late twenties he was much older due to aging slower after he began cultivating.
“How may I help you sir Rider?” He asked.
He wasn’t a deacon or anything, he was a simple man with low talent hired by the sect to help with the managements of the halls but his pay was in contribution points as well which is how he reached where he was after several dozen years.
Ning pulled out a letter and handed it over. The young man read it and than lifted it towards a candle with blue flame.
“Alright the job assigned is bringing three carriage of 500 kilo stacks of bricks for common maintenance of buildings.” He said.
“Huh!” Ning looked at him flabbergasted.
“Is there a problem?” The man asked.
“How do you know it's something so crazy?” Ning asked.
“Here lift the letter towards that fire and let the light shine. It will reveal the job.” he said.
Ning did so and it said just that, ‘Travel to the Iron Rock Quarry and transport 3 carts of processed Iron rock bricks to the Outer sect deposit.’
Ning didn’t know if this was good or bad and turned to the man, “Um… where is this Quarry?” Ning asked reluctantly.
“Let me see your identification card.” He said.
Ning handed it over and he took out a green one and put it over Ning’s and closed his eyes.
While he was doing what he was doing Ning looked around and saw that there were quite a number of people under the same situation, some had large bags on their back while some were a bit dirty and dressed to work the fields. Ning wondered what kind of jobs they did. It was than that he noticed that white haired girl.
At that moment the man opened his eyes, “Done.” When he noticed Ning was looking away he looked towards where he was looking and frowned a bit, “Boy, get your head out of the gutter. Let me give you friendly advice okay, that girl is out of your league.” He said.
“Who is she?” He asked.
“Have you been living under a rock to not know of Zhao Rinrin, the little princess of the Zhao clan one of the three noble clans of the Geo royal family sect.” He said.
“I just joined the sect from outside so I don’t know many of the people.” Ning said.
“Oh I see. Well let me just tell you, even if you are a Rider you will still not have much chance so don’t think of trying to court her. Riders of high talent have arranged marriage without a doubt. The moment she enters the inner sect she will be betrothed to a talent or if there are several they will have a contest for her hand.” He said.
Ning didn’t speak and simply turned back but he couldn’t hide the faint blush because he thought she was very cute even if she never smiled and had a cold appearance.
The man sighed and shook his head, “Anyway, here, look at the map, I have already added the location of the quarry. Most of the time disciples will come back pulling the carriage unless the beast is strong enough to fly. The land pullers usually move in convoy because the trip is at least 2 to 3 hours long and the forests around here have high ranking beasts.” He said.
“How will I bring it back?” Ning asked.
“Obviously you pull it or him…” He pointed at the little calf knowing full well Dao Beasts grow.
With a nod he thanks the man and takes a look at the map. The distance was 20 minutes away by air but on land it was very far. The map showed the shortest safest path but there was a red line which was an even shorter path but there were circles and territory divisions which mean they would cross dangerous lands.
On the side was his objective and he could only sigh and walk outside.
What he found was a massive harpy taking flight towards the Southeast causing a heavy wind but even so Ning didn’t mind it much and called out Tora and put away Tyrant before taking flight but as soon as he remembered the direction to go he was startled to see that it was the same direction as the massive harpy which had blowing white hair on its back. “It can’t be…” He thought but still told Tora to go.
If one was to see from one side it looked like he was tailing Zhao Rinrin and for the first five minutes he kept going at a casual pace but suddenly the massive harpy, which he hadn’t noticed, appeared in front and they had to rapidly veer away. Than cold voice came from its back.
“Who are you and why are you following me?”
Finally after Tora calmed down he started down the harpy and roared as his aura exploded becoming a step stronger than the harpy.
Of course it would, he was initial Houtian while this harpy, which was the second born, was only High Success Qi refining but it was this size but in terms of strength Tora was greater.
Zhao Rinrin was a bit startled when the harpy moved back a bit in fear of the Flying fish.
“I’m not following you, i’m heading to the Quarry to do my daily job.” Ning said a bit annoyed. He had previously thought she was cute but her actions just now left him with a bad impression. Because of this he pouted and gave a small tap on Tora who hissed at the harpy and turned forward. “I will be seeing miss.” He give a small bow before Tora flew forward but before she could react a wind tunnel formed in front of him and he suddenly burst forward as the funnel collapsed causing a tailwind for Tora.
Zhao Rinrin looked into space that Bo Ning had been at just a moment ago with her small cherry pink lips open and her eyes open wide. Since when has someone treated her in such a manner? She was the Zhao clan little devil princess. Because Riders have a unique body, they aren’t as negatively affected by Infernal Energy but even so she has quite a track record under her name. If she doesn’t get what she wants she will still get it one way or another. Until she came to the outer sect she had been a princess and now she had to work for her privilege but it has been less than two months since then. How could a royalty get accustomed to something like that so quickly and even so she was in one of the higher end courtyards with 15 maids, 5 butlers and elder maids? She was still somewhat pampered even here but not as greatly as she would like and she had to wear the outer disciple robes.
Her eyes brows twitched and her eyes narrowed and she pat the harpies neck before it began to fly once more and pick up speed at an increasingly fast pace. “Little brat, this princess, I, will not let you off so easily for brushing me off so easily.” She said.
If someone saw her as she was their jaw would fall off because at this moment she showed an angry pouting expression which was never seen by those outsiders she had no relationship with.
***
“Alright, this is your cart. 500 kilo of Iron rock bricks.” The bulky tanned man with dirty clothes and his arms exposed with his shirt sleeves rolled up. The man was only Low Success Qi refiner, or in other words, a commoner, but even so his body was very well build. When put on a scale compared to sect disciples his body foundation was many times greater.
“Little miss, that one over there is the 100 kilos of brute iron ore you are requested to take.” he said towards Zhao Rinrin.
She had arrived only a minute after Ning and so they were both attended together.
Ning frowned when he saw the large metal cart carrying the brute rock ore while when he saw his own it was a metal carriage that looked like a mine cart and seemed even heavier that the one the girl was pulling.
Of course these kinds of eyes did not go unnoticed and for some reason Rinrin felt some glee seeing Ning’s misfortune. She waved her arm and the tiny white demon ape suddenly jump up her arm and jumped off before it suddenly grew to two and a half meters tall and let out a roar.
As for Ning, he called out Tyrant and after a moment he suddenly grew to the size of a very muscular bull.
“Titan Bull! Ahahaha no wonder you got such a heavy job boy!” The foreman laughed.
“What about that?” Ning asked pointing to the Houtian stage Demon Ape.
The man looked at the ape but laughed, “That is brute ore, 100 kilos is how much fits inside the cart of the same size as the perfectly cut 500 kilos of stone.” He said.
Ning rolled his eyes and simply called Tyrant over to the carriage. There was a T shaped axis and on one side was harness to put around Tyrant and after asking for some help he finally put it on but after a bit he found Tyrant couldn’t pull the heavy weight alone so he began to circulate Qi from him through his body invigorating Tyrant and himself before grabbing that axis and pushing it himself before it finally started to move.
It took only a few steps for Ning to feel his muscles screaming and he was shouting, “This is worst than slavery!” in his mind.
But after several steps he stopped and took the time to circulate the ‘Titan Bull’s Titan Body’ as a way to alleviate the pain but he suddenly realized something. The body refining martial arts acted somewhat as a healing martial arts when refining his body. If he could do this while he was walking with Tyrant than he would surely be able to slowly advance on level 2 which included the muscles. The problem was cultivating while moving but then after a thought he threw that notion away. He simply needed to circulate his Qi in the pattern used by the martial arts and activate it constantly. As long as he had both Tora and Tyrant connected, the three of them would be cultivating and he could advance further Tyrant’s seed formation since this focused on him.
With that thought he began to circulate the Qi from Tyrant’s body and slowly draw in more Qi slowly and began to push.
He pushed until they were near the road where he found that there were several other carriage there and more were slowly coming. Unlike Ning there were people pulling carts with far less weight if they were alone but riders with strength type beasts all had a very high weight limit. Everyone but Zhao Rinrin of course. She was casually sitting on top of the Snow Demon Ape’s shoulder as it pulled the cart by the T axis like it was pulling a little toy.
Even if she was cute she was a real pain because they were suffering and she got preferential treatment getting the least weight.
Because of the method Ning was using, he was now moving at a pace of twenty paces per minute which wasn’t any slower than the others. Put into simpler terms, everyone was estimated and given a weight at their upper limit but not so overbearing that they couldn’t walk back.
In truth Ning could have also strapped on Tora to help, he was Houtian but it wouldn’t do much difference. It was a speed flying type beast not a strength type like Tyrant.
Seeing no way around this, Ning simply stopped and waited until the large convoy of carts got ready to move. He had Tora stand guard at his full size floating overhead releasing his aura to scare away any scavenger or weak opportunists. Not only Ning but several other Riders did the same and they slowly walked forward on the trek back to the city.