Kays Translations

Chapter 302: Forming a Team

Guo Sihai explained bit by bit, very thoroughly, and many of those around listened with sparkling eyes. Before Guo Sihai even finished speaking, some people were already too impatient to wait and wanted to go register as adventurers. Some business firms and conglomerate representatives even started thinking about registering as armed groups.

Some sharp-witted merchants especially realized that by forming mercenary groups, they could openly and legitimately build their own “armies” and thereby participate in Anyang’s politics! This was simply… wonderful!

As for the Xuntian Zhenren, after listening, he looked at Guo Sihai and said,
“You’re saying that as long as someone in the Nascent Soul stage registers, they become a four-star adventurer and are qualified to buy Foundation Establishment Elixir? And at half price?”

“Yes!”

“Then I’ll register right now and buy a bottle of Foundation Establishment Elixir immediately!”

“You don’t have any points!” Guo Sihai chuckled. “To get the half-price deal, you need points. Points are given for free—they’re honorary points, rewards for completing tasks.

For example, if you complete a task with a reward of 500 taels of gold, you’ll earn 500 points.

Only with points can you buy all goods here at half price.

If an item sells for 1,000 taels of gold, you can use 500 taels of gold and 500 points to purchase it. If you don’t have points, you can only earn them by doing tasks. Points are non-transferable—any transferred points will be voided.

Also, during transactions, half in gold and half in points is fixed and unchangeable.”

Xuantian  Zhenren stared at Guo Sihai for a while, then suddenly spat out two words: “You Swindler!”

“How am I a swindler?!” Guo Sihai was indignant.

“In name, it’s half-price, and that does seem true; but in essence, you’re driving people to constantly work for you, and you can even use this to win people over. Am I right?”

“Alright, alright, you’re right, you’re clever, you’re amazing, okay? I say, you’ve asked enough—go do your thing already.”

“I’ll take a look first,” Xuantian said as he walked into the “Star-Rated” Task Hall. Upon entering, he saw large display screens on the walls showing lots of information. Looking closely, he muttered, “Oh, turns out it’s an illusion array or some unknown technique forming a jade-like display. Technology like this is quite common in Anyang.”

“What’s this? Long-term tasks?”

First: Recruit strategists, scholars, alchemists… all kinds of talents to join Anyang. Depending on their abilities and cultivation level, tasks will be rated accordingly. Please consult staff for details.
Posted by: Li Xian

Second: Seek spiritual herbs and materials—no limit to quantity or type. Please consult staff for details.
Posted by: Li Xian

Xuantian  Zhenren saw these two tasks and sneered, “As expected of a swindler—this is clearly meant to get everyone working for Anyang.”

He looked around again and found another wall with a similar large display screen, this one labeled “General Tasks.”

The first row of text was “Special Notice”: General tasks are usually available only once. Once claimed, unless the previous team gives it up, others—individuals or groups—cannot take it. Please consult staff for details.

First Task: Collect 100 beautiful feathers from Nascent Soul stage demonic beasts (avian type). Can be claimed as a batch or one feather at a time.
Starting price per feather is 20,000 taels of gold, with no upper limit, depending on quality, color, etc.
Task Level: Four Star
Time Limit: One year
Posted by: Li Xian
Note: Non-Nascent Soul level individuals should avoid this task. Failure affects your adventurer or mercenary group’s reputation. Consult staff for details.

Second Task: Find one five-hundred-year-old Snow Mountain White Jade Ginseng. Time limit: three years.
Reward: 450,000 taels of gold.
Task Level: Three Star
Reward Points: 450,000
Posted by: Anonymous

“Anonymous? Sounds interesting,” Xuantian muttered, stroking his chin as he continued looking around. On another wall, there were explanations of task levels, adventurer ranks, and mercenary levels.

One-Star Adventurer: Register to qualify.
Two-Star Adventurer: Must be at Foundation Establishment stage, or personally complete tasks totaling 10,000 taels of gold (equivalent to 10,000 points). Points spent do not affect your level.
Three-Star Adventurer: Golden Core stage or tasks totaling 100,000 taels of gold.
Four-Star Adventurer: Nascent Soul stage or tasks totaling 1,000,000 taels of gold.
Five-Star Adventurer: Tasks totaling 5,000,000 taels of gold.

Above Five-Star is the “Crescent Moon” symbol:

• One crescent: 10 million taels of gold in tasks
  
• Two crescents: 20 million
  
• Three crescents: 50 million
  
• Four crescents: 100 million
  
• Five crescents: 200 million
  

Above the moon rank is the “Sun” symbol—but this area was currently blank.

The above ranks are for individuals—adventurers. For mercenary groups, the standard is ten times higher. However, all mercenary groups must start from One-Star.

Also, “Star-Rated” adventurer badges are made of copper.

Once you reach the “Moon Rank,” badges are made of mithril—the badge itself becomes a magical tool.

Next to it was a punishment notice for task failure: 10% of the task’s points will be deducted as a penalty. If there aren’t enough points, the adventurer or mercenary group will be downgraded. This is to warn people not to aim too high or maliciously snatch tasks.

Additionally, adventurers and mercenaries of different ranks enjoy different privileges. For example, only Four-Star adventurers or mercenary groups can buy Foundation Establishment Elixir.

Xuantian  Zhenren finished reading, still muttering things like “swindler,” but walked up to a registration window and said, “Young lady, I want to register as a mercenary!”

“Hello, please submit a deposit of 10 taels of gold. It will be returned to you in a month. This is to prevent frivolous registrations.”

For a Nascent Soul expert like Xuantian, ten taels of gold was nothing.

After handing over the gold, he infused his aura into a black orb the size of a fist. The orb lit up with four stars.

“Your registration name?”

“Xuantian.”

“Nascent Soul expert—Four-Star Adventurer. Senior, please keep your certificate safe. Also, if convenient, you may open a bank account. All our finances run through the banking system—fast, easy, and error-free.”

The Four-Star badge didn’t consist of four individual badges, but rather one badge with four stars on it. When it landed in his hand, Xuantian Zhenren keenly noticed: it looked copper-made, but the material seemed mixed with something else—making it hard to counterfeit.

“Hmm? There seems to be a small formation inside… it’s… a Calming Spell Formation! Just this one badge alone is worth ten taels of gold. In that case, this is actually a small magical artifact.”

But Xuantian did not leave. Instead, he continued asking, “I want to register a mercenary group.”

“You’re alone. A mercenary group needs at least five people.”

“That’s easy!” Master Xuantian smiled confidently and suddenly released his aura. “A Nascent Soul expert is recruiting! Just need five people to form a team!”

“Senior, I’m in!”

“Me too…”

“And me…”

In the blink of an eye, more than thirty people had gathered in front of Master Xuantian, and more were crowding over.

Seeing the dumbfounded look on the young lady behind the counter, Master Xuantian was quite pleased. But then he calmed down and carefully observed each person’s eyes, sensing their cultivation level. Soon, he pointed out five people. These five were first registered as adventurers, and then the six of them registered together as a mercenary group.

Mercenary Group Name: Xuantian
Level: Four-star
Members:

• Leader: Master Xuantian, Nascent Soul stage, Four-star Adventurer.
  
• Members:
  
  • Wang Yue, Late Gold Core stage; Three-star Adventurer.
    
  • Zhang Changle, female, Mid Gold Core stage; Three-star Adventurer.
    
  • Lu Wangcai, Mid Gold Core stage; Three-star Adventurer.
    
  • Duan Shichao, Mid Gold Core stage; Three-star Adventurer.
    
  • Cao Aiping, female, Mid Gold Core stage; Three-star Adventurer.
    

And just like that, the first mercenary group was established in a short amount of time, with every member being a capable fighter. Truly, hidden masters among the common folk.

Influenced by common cultivation ideologies, many cultivation experts are reluctant to join the court or any large organizations—for once they do, many end up meeting untimely deaths. But the “Adventurers and Mercenaries Association” launched by Li Xian gave these individuals a suitable place to go—where they could train themselves, earn money, and enjoy the good reputation of Anyang.

More importantly, the “Adventurers and Mercenaries Association” also had many treasures—liquid spiritual energy, medicinal elixirs, spirit stones, black iron, magical artifacts, etc. While not everything was available, the supply was abundant. In these times of scarce resources, Anyang was considered well-stocked.

After forming the group, Captain Xuantian pointed to a mission involving collecting feathers. “Let’s start with the mission to collect 10 feathers.”

“Okay!” The young lady immediately got busy. She then spoke a few words to the “Spiritual Communication Treasure Mirror,” and soon the display on the wall changed to:

“Mission 1: Find 100 beautiful Nascent Soul stage beast (bird-type) feathers. 90 feathers remaining.”

“Interesting!” said Master Xuantian and prepared to leave.

Right then, a staff member came over. “Greetings, Senior. Congratulations on registering your mercenary group. Since you now have a group, would you like a base? Perhaps an office? We have—”

“Enough talk, lead the way! Also, take me to open a bank account.” Master Xuantian had made up his mind. If he was going to do this, he would do it right, and get everything set up at once. Besides, a bank account was indeed a good thing—it meant he wouldn’t have to carry gold and silver around anymore. Frankly, carrying those heavy metals around was far from comfortable.

After touring the place, Master Xuantian bought a small office inside the grand building of the “Adventurers and Mercenaries Association.” This would now be the official representative office of the Xuantian Mercenary Group within the association. As for a permanent base, that could be purchased outside.

As for the bank account, for now, it utilized security methods such as: passwords, formation runes, ledgers, paper money stubs, and deposit slips. Each account had a strict numeric code, and with the code, the corresponding target could be quickly located among the tens of thousands of accounts.

By the time everything was finished, it was already evening. Master Xuantian looked at the sky and said to Zhang Changle beside him, “Zhang Changle, from now on, you’ll be in charge of financial matters. Wang Yue will act as deputy leader and command the team when I’m unavailable.

Tonight, buy some supplies. Tomorrow, we’ll head north of Anyang and enter the territory of the demon race.”

“Will it be dangerous?” The others looked concerned—it was, after all, the demon race’s territory. Wang Yue, newly appointed as deputy leader, was the first to ask.

“Don’t worry, the demon race isn’t as terrifying as people imagine. I’ve been there several times,” Xuantian said, gazing at the sky as if reminiscing. “Back when I first reached the Gold Core stage, I once snuck into demon territory—not near Anyang, but further north, in a country called ‘Yan Kingdom.’

Actually, demons are very similar to humans—just different in appearance. Also, the demon race is more savage; they believe in strength over reason. So when speaking with them, it’s best to show your cultivation level. If they’re more powerful, just be a bit humble. The demon race lacks resources, so appearing as merchants makes things much easier.

However, the demon race has no concept of nationhood. Their land is ruled by powerful mountain lords. A strong mountain lord can control several thousand li of land—basically their own kingdom.

Also, if we’re just collecting ordinary feathers, it’s actually quite simple. Many bird-type demon beasts shed feathers regularly. So, maybe we can trade some valuable or interesting items in exchange for feathers.

Zhang Changle, go buy some goods—within a budget of 1,000 taels of gold. Let me think… we’ll need some stainless steel, glass mirrors, colorful lanterns… also, get plenty of silk and cotton fabric.”

After speaking, Xuantian paused briefly and continued, “I think you five are kind-hearted people. But I hope that, going forward, we can build the Xuantian Mercenary Group into something big—and use it to acquire the cultivation resources we need.”

“Captain, we won’t let you down!”

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