Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Guard Squad
As dusk fell, Li Yuan was returning to his residence when he caught sight of the notice board on the wall and stopped in his tracks.
A new notice had been posted on the board. The ink was still fresh, a clear sign it had just been put up that day.
The notice was the guard rotation list for the marketplace Guard.
Li Yuan’s eyes quickly scanned the names on the list, stopping on the third line.
Li Yuan, Qi Refining Third Level, to be rotated into the guard starting the first of next month. Duration: one month.
Seeing this, Li Yuan’s heart sank.
The Guard was not a good assignment.
The Wang family maintained two detachments in Qinghe Marketplace: the Guard, and Li Yuan’s own Patrol Team.
The two teams had clearly defined duties.
The Patrol Team was responsible for internal marketplace affairs—in other words, running errands and doing odd jobs. The work was trivial, but it had the advantage of being safe.
The Guard, however, was different.
Qinghe Marketplace was situated on the outskirts of the Yuanheng Mountain Range. The mountains, which began a hundred li to the west, were overrun with Demon Beasts.
Although there weren’t many Demon Beasts in the outer regions, some still appeared near the marketplace, and it was the Guard’s job to step in.
Besides Demon Beasts, there were the even more dangerous Robber Cultivators.
The Yuanheng Mountain Range stretched for thousands of li. Its mineral veins, Spirit Grass, Spirit Medicines, and various Demon Beasts attracted vast numbers of Loose Cultivators trying to make a living.
Naturally, this also gave rise to Robber Cultivators, who specialized in plundering their fellow cultivators.
Moreover, many of these Robber Cultivators were simply Loose Cultivators taking on a side job. They might appear harmless on a normal day, but they would seize any opportunity to commit murder for treasure.
The Guard was the unit responsible for patrolling the marketplace’s perimeter, driving off Demon Beasts, and deterring Robber Cultivators.
The Guard’s monthly salary was ten Spirit Stones, more than triple the three an Inspector General earned. They were also issued more pills each month, but the level of danger was naturally much higher.
Many guards had died on patrol. If you were unlucky, your body was never even recovered.
The guard rotation was a system the Wang family had established to prevent the Guard from becoming short-staffed.
Every month, a group of Inspector Generals from the marketplace would be drafted to supplement the Guard for a one-month tour.
During the rotation, their regular duties were paused, and their pay was issued according to the Guard’s standards.
The body’s previous owner had been rotated four times. Three had been harrowing but ultimately harmless, while one had resulted in a minor injury.
But during those four tours, he had witnessed two Guard Cultivators die.
Li Yuan stood before the notice board, his face calm, but his mind was racing.
There were twelve days until the first of next month.
’What can I do in twelve days?’
Li Yuan had no desire to join the Guard. ’I have the equipment panel now and a boundless future ahead of me. I’m not about to risk it all for ten Spirit Stones.’
’If I could break through to the Qi Refining Fourth Level, things would be completely different.’
The Qi Refining Fourth Level was already considered Mid-stage Qi Refining. Unless the Guard was exceptionally short-staffed or there was an emergency, cultivators at that level weren’t forcibly conscripted.
But the problem was, the body’s previous owner had been stuck at the peak of the Qi Refining Third Level for almost two years. He had just recently failed to break through the bottleneck with the help of pills, making a breakthrough in a short period of time seem nearly impossible.
’Unless I have some outside help.’
Li Yuan’s thoughts turned to the system.
[Trait: Spiritual Qi Filtration]
The trait’s effect was to increase cultivation speed by thirty percent and automatically filter out impurities.
’It increases my cultivation speed and improves the quality of my Spiritual Power, but that isn’t enough for a breakthrough. I’ll need other traits.’
If he had a month to accumulate power, Li Yuan was confident he could break through. But now, he only had twelve days.
’The best-case scenario is that after I make Spiritual Qi Filtration permanent, I’ll not only gain an extra equipment slot but also free up the current one. Then I can equip other items and obtain new traits.’
’If I can find one or two traits helpful for a breakthrough, on top of the original Spiritual Qi Filtration...’
’But aside from the Spirit Stone, I haven’t found another equippable item. And only items that belong to me can be equipped, and right now, all I have is a single Spirit Stone.’
’Although I can collect my monthly salary in a few days, that will only bring my total to four Spirit Stones, which probably isn’t enough.’
’Besides, the time it takes to complete a hundred cultivation cycles is significant. By the time I make the trait permanent, I’ll likely only have two or three days left to break through.’
Li Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing his rising impatience as he looked around.
The wooden hut was sparsely furnished. Inside, apart from a wooden bed, a wardrobe, a table, and a meditation cushion, there was only a pile of junk in the corner.
Most of the junk had been left by the body’s previous owner. Having inherited his memories, Li Yuan naturally knew what was there.
A chipped Magic Sword was tucked away at the bottom of the wardrobe. The body’s previous owner had picked it up at the marketplace for a few Spirit Stones years ago. He had intended to repair it, but when he discovered that fixing it would cost more than buying a new one, he’d simply set it aside.
Li Yuan crouched down and took out the Magic Sword.
The blade was about three feet long with a visible chip in the edge. The patterns on its surface were dim, a clear sign of severe Spiritual Qi loss.
Li Yuan gripped the hilt and waited for the system to react.
Nothing.
No prompt, no text.
"As expected, damaged items can’t be equipped."
Li Yuan had anticipated this. When he equipped the Spirit Stone, the word "Complete" in its description had already suggested as much.
Li Yuan put the Magic Sword back and started rummaging through the house again.
Besides the Magic Sword, the only other potentially equippable items were a few Cleaning Talismans on the table.
The body’s previous owner had bought them from Old Zhang a few days ago. You could get ten dozen for half a Spirit Stone; they were sold purely on quantity, not quality.
Their effect was mediocre. They could clear away dust and repel insects, keeping one’s clothes clean and bugs at bay for a while. They were completely useless for cultivation—a purchase made purely for convenience.
Li Yuan picked up a Cleaning Talisman, and the familiar, translucent text immediately appeared:
[Equippable Item Detected: Cleaning Talisman (Complete)]
[Trait Preview: Clean Body (Gray) — Body does not easily gather dust; repels insects.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Learn the Magic — Cleaning Skill]
[Equipment slot full (1/1). Replace current equipment?]
[Current Equipment: Low Grade Spirit Stone]
[Upon replacement, you will lose the trait: Spiritual Qi Filtration (White)]
[Note: After unequipping, permanence progress is retained, but the same type of item can only be re-equipped after twenty-four hours.]
Li Yuan immediately chose to cancel.
Aside from this Cleaning Talisman, there were no other items in the house he could equip—the body’s previous owner had sold off basically anything of value.
’There’s another way. I could equip the Cleaning Talisman first, make its trait permanent to get an extra equipment slot, and then find another trait that helps with breakthroughs. Combined with the original Spiritual Qi Filtration, the odds of a breakthrough wouldn’t be small.’
’But there’s one problem: I don’t know the Cleaning Skill.’
Although the Cleaning Skill was one of the most common entry-level Magic for cultivators, it still had to be learned.
Li Yuan put down the Cleaning Talisman and began to think.
The Cleaning Skill wasn’t expensive, but it would still cost a few Spirit Stones to learn from another cultivator, and mastering the basics would take several days.
’As it stands, both methods require me to find new traits. The odds of a breakthrough relying on Spiritual Qi Filtration alone are low, and both plans have their own flaws.’
’There’s no use overthinking it. I need to focus on the task at hand. In these twelve days, my main goal is to improve my cultivation and, if possible, complete the permanence of the Spiritual Qi Filtration trait.’
With a thought, Li Yuan summoned the panel.
[Spiritual Qi Filtration (White)]
[Permanence Progress: 1/100]
Closing the panel, Li Yuan wasted no time. He sat down cross-legged in the hut and began to circulate the Spirit-Introducing Skill.
Spiritual Qi converged from all directions. After passing through that invisible filter, it became incomparably pure and flowed through his meridians into his Dantian.
After the previous owner’s failed breakthrough, his cultivation had even regressed slightly. Therefore, Li Yuan wasn’t just cultivating now to meet the trait’s permanence condition; he was also rebuilding his cultivation base.
As Li Yuan delved deeper into his cultivation, the night grew darker. The wooden hut was silent, save for the sound of his even breaths.
An unknown amount of time passed before Li Yuan opened his eyes and exhaled a long, turbid breath.
[Permanence Progress: 6/100]
’Five cycles.’ A pleased expression appeared on Li Yuan’s face as he sensed his cultivation progress.
’The filtered Spiritual Qi is putting less pressure on my meridians than I’d imagined.’
’At this rate, making the trait permanent might take less time than I thought.’
