He Yu turned in the bundle of medicinal herbs and thanked the clerk behind the assignment hall counter as she marked down his contribution points. In the weeks since his fight with Sha Xiang, he’d split his time between cultivation and taking on increasingly lucrative sect jobs. The beating she’d given him had required a fair number of resources to bounce back from, and He Yu had no illusions about their relative strength, despite the damage she’d caused her own cultivation.
The only reason he’d been able to match her was the fact that she’d already spent a fair amount of qi fighting against Tan Xiaoling before he’d arrived. He was certain that if he were to face her at full strength she would destroy him. He needed to get stronger, and for that, he needed contribution points.
As he was about to leave, the girl behind the counter spoke up, “Sect Brother He, I am to inform you that Senior Sister Zhang has accepted a job on your behalf.”
He Yu suppressed a groan. “Can she do that?”
“I’m not aware of any rules that forbid it, and I would not dare to question one as highly placed as Senior Sister Zhang.”
“What’s the job?” he asked. In all likelihood, the job was a way for Zhang Lifen to skirt the prohibitions on interfering with the outer disciples. She had said that she expected him to defeat both Sha Xiang and Xiao Jun in the future, and this was probably a not-too-gentle shove in that direction.
The clerk handed him a bamboo scroll with the job details. “Senior Sister said to consider it a training opportunity.”
He Yu unrolled the scroll, and this time he actually did groan. At the northern edge of the Shrouded Peaks Sect’s administered territory, a group of bandits had moved into the area and were terrorizing the local population. Their leader, Hao Niu, styled himself as a king and was rumored to be a Third Realm cultivator. Zhang Lifen had once said that he’d come to regret it when she took a more active hand in his training, and now he was beginning to see what she meant.
“Did Senior Sister Zhang leave any other instructions?” He Yu asked.
“She said that you can bring some companions, should you choose. If you do, any rewards will be evenly split among the participants.”
He Yu glanced at the bamboo scroll once more. The amount of sect points awarded for the job was significant—worth nearly as much as the total he’d accumulated before his advancement to Foundation. The job also mentioned that the disciples completing it could help themselves to any spoils found in the bandits’ possession, too. That didn’t surprise him too much, and he honestly felt much better about robbing defeated bandits than he did his fellow disciples. The only thing he had to figure out was just how exactly he was going to defeat a cultivator at the Body Refining stage.
After thanking the disciple at the commission hall, He Yu made his way back home. Obviously, Zhang Lifen meant for him to bring others along with him. Tan Xiaoling would be the most obvious choice as the strongest of any disciples He Yu was on good enough terms with to ask. The problem was that she had secluded herself in cultivation over a week ago, and had left no indication of when she would emerge.
An extended journey away from the sect would be a good opportunity to spend time with Chen Fei. Except she had disappeared from the sect as well, and she was rumored to have been seen cultivating up on one of the higher peaks deeper in the sect mountains. He Yu didn’t particularly enjoy the thought of wandering the mountains for weeks looking for her, just to ask if she’d like to come deal with some bandits. Besides, if she were off by herself like that, she was likely there for a reason and probably wouldn’t come anyway.
Fortunately, Li Heng was in when He Yu arrived back at their shared home. The noble looked composed as always, in an immaculate—and expensive—version of the sect outer disciple’s uniform. His hair was pulled back and held in place by a silver and jade crown hairpin, but he’d recently taken to allowing a lock to trail down on either side, framing his face. Between his noble bearing and his conventional good looks, He Yu found it hard not to be a bit envious every time he saw him—especially now that many of the young women in the outer sect had started to pay more attention to the heir of the Western Passage.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Hey, I had a question,” He Yu said as he took his place across from Li Heng as they settled in for their afternoon tea. “Zhang Lifen sort of accepted a sect job for me. I can bring others along to help, and I wondered if you’d come.”
“Senior Sister Zhang accepted a job for you,” Li Heng repeated, sounding about as wary as He Yu expected he would. He’d told his housemate about Zhang Lifen’s expectations for him shortly after the end of the outer sect truce.
“There’s a group of bandits led by a Body Refining cultivator. They’ve been terrorizing the people in the northern extent of the sect’s territory. I’m supposed to deal with them.”
Li Heng arched an eyebrow. “Senior Sister must think very highly of you.”
“I don’t know why,” he said with a sigh. “I barely held off Sha Xiang, and she only has a stage on me. How can Zhang Lifen expect me to deal with someone with at least a full realm’s advantage?”
This had been the question he’d been turning over ever since learning of the job. Every stage within a realm was a considerable boost to a cultivator. He Yu had come to experience the difference for himself, both through his own advancement and by being on the receiving end of attacks from disciples with greater cultivation than his own. Every realm was a wider river than the last, and the Body Refining realm did exactly what its name suggested. As the body was perfected and prepared for the strain that the advances of the higher realms placed on it, the increases in physical strength, endurance, and durability were tremendous.
“We’re going to need help,” Li Heng said.
“I know, but who can we ask? Tan Xiaoling is in seclusion, and nobody has seen Chen Fei in over a week either.”
“Yan Shirong, of course.”
He Yu wrinkled his nose at that answer. It was the obvious one, of course, but how much could Yan Shirong actually help? The comital scion was quick to point out that his arts weren’t suited for combat, and if He Yu remembered correctly, Yan Shirong was only at the middle Foundation stage.
“He’ll be of great help,” Li Heng said, preempting any objections from He Yu. “Besides, it’ll take us some time to get to the edge of sect territory. The two of you will be able to cultivate on the way. If we’re lucky, one of you might advance a stage before we get there. The three of us should be able to handle a cultivator who’s resorted to banditry.”
He Yu didn’t particularly like the way Li Heng had emphasized “should,” but he couldn’t argue with the logic behind a three-to-one advantage.
“Besides,” Li Heng added, “with winter coming, it’ll be nice to get off the mountain. Although we’re far enough south that it should be rather mild regardless.”
“How long will it take?” He Yu asked, far more concerned with the time away from the sect than the weather.
“A couple of months there and back, I suppose. The sects all administer vast territories, after all. Distance isn’t much of a factor to higher realm cultivators.”
It had taken He Yu nearly a month to travel from Shulin to Xu Xiang at the foot of the outer sect mountain. If it would take him a similar amount of time at a higher realm of advancement to travel to the territory’s northern edge, the lands the Shrouded Peaks Sect controlled must truly be vast.
“Will our cultivation suffer from the journey?”
Li Heng shrugged as he finished his tea. “We’d have more time to cultivate if we stayed on the mountain, that’s certain.” He held up a finger when He Yu started to object. “The trip will be valuable in its own right,” he said. “The experience we gain isn’t something we’d get by staying within the safety of the sect. As much as it pains me to miss out on the potential duels with other disciples, that isn’t truly battle. If Princess Tan were around, I’d say ask her if you want.”
Thinking of the times he’d seen Tan Xiaoling in battle, He Yu recalled the sharp danger to her spirit that carried no particular aspect of her qi. “Killing intent,” he said.
“You don’t develop that through the sort of slap fights we get into here in the outer sect,” Li Heng said with a nod. “It’s not so important now, but like with all things, the earlier you can begin to develop it, the better.”
The idea of it didn’t exactly sit well with He Yu, but all the stories spoke of it. He supposed that if he wanted to be a cultivator truly worthy of legends he wouldn’t be able to avoid it forever. More importantly, Li Heng hadn’t led him astray so far.
“Fair,” he said, nodding his agreement. “I still would prefer to be able to gather strength here on the mountain. Sha Xiang will be cultivating while we’re away, and I’m going to have to face her again eventually.”
“You think going up against a Third Realm cultivator with real combat experience won’t be good training? Besides, who knows what sort of spoils we’ll get from defeating him? The reward for the job is enough on its own to make up for the time we’ll be gone. Then there will be months worth of your stipend just waiting for you when you get back.”
Li Heng made all good points. “Alright,” He Yu said. “Let’s hunt some bandits.”