An Chen cultivated until noon the next day, having finished another bottle of Gathering Qi Pill. He only took two breaks in between, both times when An Chen felt hungry and stopped to take out two flatbreads from his qiankun bag to gnaw on.
It wasn't that he was too lazy to Cultivate at noon; after all, in his opinion, the greatest advantage of the Kyushu Continent at this stage was Spiritual Qi. If he didn't improve his Cultivation Realm, it would be inconvenient for him to do anything later.
Recently, there didn't seem to be any major events around that required special action to deal with.
As for information gathering... that was something those Transcendents who had Transmigrated inexplicably had to do; he didn't need to.
After lunch, An Chen originally wanted to continue Cultivating, but he glanced at the two empty porcelain bottles on the ground beside him and sighed.
These Gathering Qi Pills were a two-day supply, and he had used them all up in one go. He would have to be more frugal with them from now on.
“Knock, knock, knock…”
The door was knocked on again.
Perhaps seeing that the sign outside the door had been removed, someone still came to visit.
An Chen opened the door, and outside were the figures of Chen Sheng and Jiang Shixiong.
An Chen breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought it was the Grand Elder again, or some unfamiliar Senior Brother or Senior Sister looking for him.
“Morning, Junior Brother.”
Chen Sheng greeted him with a smile.
“It's already noon. If you don't know how to greet, you don't have to.”
Jiang Shixiong retorted.
“What do you know? The first thing you say when you go out is 'good morning,' and you can't go wrong.”
An Chen returned a smile.
“Junior Brother, do you want to go down the mountain?”
Chen Sheng asked with a smile.
“Go down the mountain?”
Neither the Grand Elder nor Manager Yang had taught him the Sect rules. It seemed that the Disciples who entered the Sect with him at the same time were still learning.
An Chen had thought that going down the mountain without permission was a violation of Sect rules.
However, for him, as long as he didn't commit crimes, it wasn't a violation of the rules.
“This… will it violate the rules?”
“If you go down the mountain without applying, it is indeed a violation of the rules, but if we accept a task, it doesn't count.”
Jiang Shixiong explained.
“Eh?”
Suddenly, another person appeared at the door; it was Manager Yang.
“Good day, Manager!”
“Good day, Manager!”
Watching the two Senior Brothers bow their heads in salute, An Chen also saluted, but Manager Yang supported him.
“Hey! No need, no need, there's no need for so many formalities, I don't really pursue that!”
Jiang Shixiong pouted and exchanged glances with Chen Sheng.
Both saw disdain in each other's eyes.
It was only in front of An Chen that Manager Yang spoke this way. In front of other Disciples, he would at most nod kindly, with an expression of enjoying flattery.
“These are your clothes, take them. Two sets, they're both custom-made, so they're definitely comfortable. And this, this is your identity token.”
An Chen took the stack of clothes from Manager Yang's hand, as well as the wooden token pressed on top, and put them into his qiankun bag.
The token looked like wood, but it was heavy and seemed very hard.
“You guys chat!”
Only after Manager Yang had walked far away did the few people resume their conversation.
“So, two Senior Brothers, you want to take me on a task?”
“That's right! Doing tasks gets you Spirit Stones, and you can go out and wander without applying! We usually like to find simple tasks to go down to Qingfeng City and have fun!”
Chen Sheng punched Jiang Shixiong.
“What do you mean 'have fun'? We are contributing to the Sect's development, do you understand?”
An Chen fell silent.
“I'm only at Qi Refining Third Level. Will it be too dangerous for me?”
“No!”
Chen Sheng patted his chest and said:
“The tasks we choose are the simplest ones, even Qi Refining First Stage can do them!”
These tasks mainly targeted the Mortal Gang forces in Qingfeng City.
Most of these Gangs committed evil deeds. Qingfeng City would assign a portion of the tasks to clear these evil forces to Qingfeng Sect, and Qingfeng Sect would then send Disciples to carry them out, internally releasing them in the form of tasks.
“Your Senior Brother Jiang and I are both at Qi Refining Ninth Stage, we can definitely protect you!”
The tasks they usually chose wouldn't be this simple, usually involving clearing dangerous elements who were Cultivator or Yao Beasts roaming in the mountains.
This time, their main purpose was to build a good relationship with their Junior Brother.
An Chen pondered for a moment, then nodded.
“Alright.”
He had been Cultivating for over fifteen consecutive hours, and it was time for him to take a break.
Although he didn't need to slowly understand this world like other Transcendents, being more familiar with his surroundings wasn't a bad thing.
He had also never entered a city in this Kyushu Continent to see it.
“Great! Since you've agreed, then come with us. That identity token just now is used for accepting tasks.”
Chen Sheng was overjoyed and pulled An Chen's arm, leading him away.
Soon, the three arrived at the Hanging Reward Hall.
The Hanging Reward Hall was very large. Upon entering, what greeted their eyes was a wall covered with wooden tokens, all detailing task requirements and bounties.
In front of this wall was a long counter, separating the Disciples who claimed tasks outside from the Disciples and Managers who worked inside the Hanging Reward Hall.
“Steward Chen, is the task we reserved earlier still available?”
“It is.”
Steward Chen threw out a wooden token. An Chen looked closely; the task described on the token was roughly to eliminate a Gang within Qingfeng City.
This Gang lured good people into joining them to work for them using Cultivation Techniques, and sometimes they would also engage in armed brawls and arson.
However, the strength of this Gang was actually not strong. The so-called Cultivation Technique was merely something written haphazardly by common folk, utterly useless.
It was said that the most powerful member of this Gang was only the Gang leader at Qi Refining Third Level, who also used an artificial Spiritual Root, and because he had no money to exchange for Spirit Stones, he couldn't Cultivate further.
Moreover, this Gang leader seemed to only have the Realm and strength, without matching combat ability.
Even An Chen could handle it.
Of course, in the eyes of Chen Sheng and Jiang Shixiong, An Chen was also the kind of person who only had Realm and strength, as they had never seen An Chen Cultivate any Spell or Martial Skill.
After all, when they were at this Realm, they were also focused on improving their Realm.
After handing over his identity token, Chen Sheng put his arm around An Chen's shoulder and laughed:
“Your Senior Brothers are taking you down the mountain to broaden your horizons. The Grand Elder and the Sect Leader definitely wouldn't do this proactively, but your Senior Brother thinks that perspective is the most important!”
He pointed in the direction of the Sect gate.
“People cannot be locked inside the Sect. The future is not cultivated through secluded bitter Cultivation, but forged through venturing out!”
An Chen nodded.
He fully agreed with this statement.
The Grand Elder and the Sect Leader certainly hoped he would stay in the Sect as much as possible and were unwilling to let him go down the mountain, but those who don't dare to step out of their comfort zone cannot seize opportunities.
In the future, he should indeed go out and explore more often.
However, across from the three, Steward Chen, who was looking at An Chen's identity token, twitched his mouth.
This… is that Genius who just joined the Sect, right?
Can they really rest assured letting him go down the mountain?