Ch 1 Tough Mission

“Sigh.” A sorrowful sound came out of the mouth of an ordinary looking male youth, 17 years of age.

‘I finally broke through to the 7th level of Spirit Gathering. Unfortunately, I have to go out now.’ Truthfully, Magnus didn’t want to go out. He wasn’t used to the different culture in this world, as he used to live in the west, but for whatever reason, was transmigrated into a cultivation world that was like the Chinese novels he was addicted to.

Although he loved the Chinese novels, and dreamed of being a cultivator himself-he didn’t want to deal with 30 minute long smack talk before anyone is allowed to throw a punch.

‘Hopefully the mission I take should be pretty easy with a nice reward. Then I can come back and cultivate. After all, one thing I’ve learned is that staying low-key, while not allowing your pride to be stepped on, is the best way to go in cultivation worlds.’

‘I also can’t wait to practice some cultivation skills and learn talisman making.’ Magnus thought as he opened his cave. As the sun shined in his eyes he took in the boring scenery that he didn’t miss-people.

As Magnus was making his way to the mission hall, a fight was brewing in the mission hall. Aaron was sick of it. He had been bullied after he was recently accepted because he outperformed someone with an older brother that was already in the sect. That bit of background made him grow up quite cocky, leading him to start treating people weaker than him like pests. Even though, ironically, his brother was seen as a pest in the sect-and had the cultivation of one, 5th level of Spirit Gathering. Considering he had been in the sect for 16 years ever since he was emitted into the sect at the age of 16, it’s a sign of a horrible aptitude.

A group of people approached Aaron, with the highest one being in the 5th level of Spirit Gathering.

“Hand over your monthly stipend that the sect gave you or pay the price.” One of the underlings threatened Aaron.

Aaron couldn’t beat them as he was only in the 2nd level of Spirit Gathering. He had only been in the sect for a few months and had shown some potential, however he couldn’t progress because he had been forced to hand over all his resources. He was sick of this. Today, with his new skill, he was going to fight back and give them a run for their money.

“O-ok, I’ll give you your spirit stones, just leave me alone please.” Aaron begged, approaching them in a fearful way with his storage pouch in hand. Stretching out his hand as if you wanted to offer it to them. Meanwhile, his other hand had a small ball of fire brewing, preparing for his sneak attack.

“Glad you know what’s good for you.” One of the lackies was preparing to approach Aaron to take the pouch, but was stopped by the leader, the older brother of the boy Aaron had offended.

“I wouldn’t want you to possibly to get hurt.” The older brother squinted his eyes.

“After all, desperate rats can prove to be a hinderance.” At this point, Aaron figured that he was caught and immediately attempted his attack anyway, as he would rather get a hit in then get beaten up. Rather than just getting beaten up without getting a hit in.

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At this time, Magnus was making his way to the mission hall and noticed a commotion not to far from where he was. He wasn’t interested at all in getting involved until he realized that a member of his peak, Dusk Pillar, was being bullied. Naturally, as the assailants were at most in the 5th level of Spirit Gathering, Magnus wasn’t afraid in the slightest.

In Spirit Gathering, Cultivation realms are divided into low, mid, top, and peak. 1-3rd levels of cultivation is early, 3-6 is mid, and 7-9 is top. Peak is special as it’s infinitely close to the next major realm, but not quite there yet. Leading there to still be a gap between peak and top. Naturally, there is a quality of energy difference between the small realms. This is especially apparent at low cultivation levels. So Magnus isn’t afraid.

‘I suppose the troubles just come to me.’ Naturally, Magnus could ignore this, however reputation is very important in cultivation. Especially since Magnus was planning on staying secluded as much as possible. By having a reputation and joining a faction, there is little to no chance of him being seen as an unstable factor and hunted down by groups of people out of fear.

In the middle of the gathering crowd, Aaron was about to be beaten to an inch of his life. However, a voice interrupted the beatdown.

“Since you are going to bully disciples from Dusk Pillar Peak, enjoy my knuckle sandwich.” Magnus suddenly appeared in the middle of the crowd and started to punch the group of bullies to the ground. Naturally, this was a piece of cake, as Magnus had trained some body refinement methods to his current cultivation level.

As the disciples were knocked unconsciousness, they realized they offended a 7th level Spirit Gathering cultivator and were quite terrified. New disciples have a gray badge with a surname on it that they pin on themselves. This differentiates each patch of disciples. Magnus was in the Li batch. So he would be called Li-Magnus.

Aaron was shocked of the overwhelming strength that Magnus showed. He couldn’t comprehend how vast the difference between disciples can be at the early stages due to a strong foundation.

“You don’t have to thank me. Just be more careful. You should stay on Dusk Pillar peak and no one would dare to beat you up if you focus on cultivation. By then you should be able to beat up these thugs any day. Anyway, I’m busy. See you around.” Magnus quickly spoke with Aaron and left.

Although Magnus wants to show his potential, there is a very fine line that you have to thread. If you show too much too early, then people of different clans could oppress him. Is what Magnus thought. He could never imagine that this cultivation world, and specifically this sect, is not something out of a novel. Although some things don’t change, people are much more realistic and won’t offend people just for the hell of it.

As Magnus entered the hall, he saw several disciples either recruiting people to go together with them on missions, taking up missions alone, or getting the reward of their mission. As he walked to the counter that had a Spirit Spring cultivator behind it, he started to look at the top missions that were posted on a board in the air, behind the disciple at the counter. Most of them were missions for assassination or sabotage. One of the missions with the highest rewards was assassinating an early Spirit Spring disciple from another faction. The rewards were very good though. You would receive 100 Spirit Stones.

This is considerable income for a Spirit Gathering disciple as Spirit Gathering pills only cost 1 spirit stone each. A pill to help someone advance from peak of Spirit gathering to Spirit Spring is only 15 spirit stones. You would have a considerable amount of income left over for buying healing pills and artifacts. However, Magnus already had a mission in mind.

“What task would you like?” The Spirit Gathering cultivator managing the mission hall stated in a monotonous voice.

“I’ll take the Gathering Illusion Mist Grass task.” Magnus replied.