The wooden door creaked as the youth entered the herbal shop. It was two days after he had initially come here. The old man was again behind the corner with his wife tending to the herbs.

There was a customer who was buying things, so, he decided to wait his turn. He stood near the door and kept quiet as he watched the old man pack some herbs up. The old woman had noticed him and made her way to him with a pleasantly surprised smile.

“Dearie, have you decided to take my husband’s offer?” she asked after eyeing him.

“Offer…?” the youth was taken aback but recalled how the old man just wanted to give him the money without him doing the mission. Thinking of it, he immediately shook his head, “No, ma’am. I’m here to say that I’ve finished your commission and the Mono-eyed Rhinos are no longer in the shallow part of the forest.”

“So quickly?” the old woman asked.

“Yes, ma’am. If you suspect something, I’d like to tell you not to worry. The Guild has their own Monitors that check if the commissions have been fulfilled or not. There are serious ramifications if I actually tried to fake it.”

“No, no, I’m not suspecting you. I’m just wondering how you got it done so quickly. T-There were more than a dozen of those beasts!” Realization flashed on her face, and she looked at him with narrowed eyes, “Does it have something to do with the herbs you took from us?”

“He poisoned those beasts,” the two of them turned around after hearing the old man’s voice. The customer had already left. He looked at the youth without a change in his expression, “You’re a poison master, lad?”

“No, just someone who works with herbs.”

“Who taught you?”

“No one.”

“Is that why you didn’t look for a job in a herb shop? Because they wouldn’t hire a self-taught young man?”

“Yes,” the youth admitted it. He had actually completely forgotten this line of work but even if this option was available, he still wouldn’t have picked it. But since the old man’s guesses conformed to his goals, he wanted to keep it going, “They wouldn’t want someone who hasn’t had any formal teaching working for them.”

The old man went silent and seemed to think deeply about something. The youth peeked at his wife but even she just smiled softly at him. She seemed to have an inkling of what the old man was thinking. Otherwise, their days together would all be for naught.

The old man finally exhaled and locked eyes with him before asking, “Boy, what do you think about working for me?”

The youth smiled slightly and shook his head, “Can’t do that, senior. I’m a cultivator. Once you start cultivating, you can only walk the path of cultivation.”

“I see,” the old man didn’t insist any longer. He took out a book from under the counter and gave it to him.

He looked at the leather cover and the yellow pages. With his eyebrows raised, he asked, “This is…?” From the corner of his eye, he saw the old woman reacting with a nostalgic expression on her face. Clearly, this held sentimental value to the couple.

“That’s my first son’s medicinal notes,” he said nonchalantly.

The youth jumped in fright and tried to hand it back to him, “S-Senior, this is too valuable. I can’t have this!”

“Take it and stop fussing so much.”

After more back and forth, the youth finally took it. He looked at the old man gratefully and asked, “Could I still ask why you would give me such an important thing?”

“You… remind us of our third son,” his wife answered for him. She had a sorrowful smile on her face but managed to make a joke out of it, “though he wasn’t as handsome as you.”

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“I see, thank you.” The youth put the book inside his robes. He still wanted to know what happened to the couple’s other kids but he wasn’t that tactless to ask.

“Stop thinking so much, lad.” As if reading his mind, the old man said, “I’ve three children. Two boys and a girl. My first and third son died to - uh… Deviant Beasts in the forest and my daughter is a cultivator just like you. Though we haven’t gotten a letter from her in a while. Lad, could you do us a favor?”

“Yes, anything.”

“If you see her, could you tell her that her parents are worried about her? Tell her to pay us a visit as well.”

“Well, I would need to know her name and what she looks like to do that.”

“Wait here,” the old woman went out the back door and came to a while later with a portrait of a young woman. With a proud look, the old woman said, “Her name is Gu Lihua. She has blue hair-” she pointed at the long curly hair in the portrait though he couldn’t tell from the art as it was made with black ink, “-like us. She has blue eyes and a heart-shaped birthmark on her hips.”

The old man suddenly slapped the counter, “Why does he need to know where her birthmark is!?”

“Hush you! He needs all the information he can get.”

The youth wasn’t paying attention to their quarrel as he heard a familiar ding sound in his mind. He glanced at the holographic screen that floated in front of his face.

New Side Quest Created!

Side Quest: Find Gu Lihua

The old couple running the Earthly Aroma Herbal Shop has requested you to find their daughter who they lost contact a year ago. You may identify her with the following – long blue curly hair, blue eyes, a knack for wearing pink clothes, an outer disciple of the Red Eagle Sect, and a… brown birthmark on her hip. She also peed on her bed at the age of eight and blamed it on her younger brother. Find her, dead or alive.

Reward: [The old couple’s gratitude]

Failure: [The old couple is disappointed]

“[Status], why did you pause there? Also, where did all of this extra information come from?”

“Boy, did you get all of that?” the old man’s voice took him out of his thoughts.

“Yes, senior.”

“Then repeat it.”

“She had blue hair, likes to wear pink clothing, has a brown birthmark on her hip, and is an outer disciple of the Red Eagle Sect. She uh… also peed her bed when she was eight and blamed it on your third son.”

“Good, then I hope that you’ll find Lihua and knock some strength into her.”

“I’ll try my best, senior.” The youth bowed, “If that’s all, then I will take my leave.”

“Go ahead and farewell, lad.”

“Goodbye, senior and ma’am.” He cupped his fists and bowed again before leaving through the door.

On the quiet streets, he took a deep breath and exhaled. “Right, this is just a minor incident. Let’s keep doing what I was doing and try to get stronger.”

“Jian Gong, how long will it take for the Demonic Qi inside my body to be expelled?”

Jian Gong spoke in his mind, “Two months. And during this time, I recommend you don’t try to absorb any more Demonic Qi, or else the time limit will grow.”

“Is there a limit to how much I can absorb?”

“There is. Your Cultivation Art can only expel Demonic Qi for seven years at its current stage. If you build up Demonic Qi that takes longer than seven years to expel, the excess will start to erode your mind.”

“Understood,” the youth walked back to the Guild to get his payment.

“Are you going to get another commission as well?” Jian Gong asked him.

“I am,” since the streets became busier, the youth began to talk to him telepathically.

“You did one yesterday,” Jian Gong sighed tiredly.

“Why the fuck are you tired when I’m the one who fought?”

“Because I have to watch it?” the youth heard Jian Gong scoffing, “Let me tell you, it gets old real fast.”

The youth finally arrived in front of the guild. He continued their conversation, “Listen, it takes at least a day for a monitor to check whether or not we did our commissions correctly. It’s been more than a day. So, I’ll get my pay, stock up, and get ready for another mission.”

“Do what you want. Though I would suggest that you do team missions too. Those have an average higher payout than solo ones.”

“Yeah, I got it. But the problem is – I need teammates to do that. Where would I get those?” the youth took his pay from the receptionist and started walking towards the bulletin board.

Before he could get there, someone stopped him. It was a young man with white robes and his hair tied in a bun with a white cloth. He had a round face with a fire in his eyes.

“Brother, are you a solo mercenary?”

“Well, would you look at that? There you go – some teammates.”