Sect Leader's Rise to the top!

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Kai got off the bed and stretched his body. There hadn't been any noticeable changes on his body externally, but internally he was completely different.

Kai's Qi channels had once again been expanded to accommodate more Qi flow. This meant he was able to move Qi through his Qi channels faster and more accurately which would drastically improve his Qi manipulation ability.

It was still early morning, so Kai decided to go have a complimentary breakfast at the Inn's buffet.

Kai greeted the Inn's receptionist whose name he still did not know, and headed for the dining room. He had a decent breakfast of rice, steamed vegetables, and some odd-tasting fish.

Kai left the Inn yet again after having had his fill. He went back in the direction of the Hunter's Lodge, but this time he went to the fancy bar across the street.

At this point, Kai had made it a habit to wear his fisherman's rags and the large straw hat over his head. This allowed Kai to hide his identity when doing hunter-related activities. He didn't know if it actually helped, but he felt it was better than doing nothing.

Kai walked into the bar and quickly realized that rather than being a bar, this place was more akin to a traditional tea shop.

Kai thought the place would be boisterous and full of unique characters drinking merrily, however, it was the complete opposite.

It was still quite early in the morning but there were already a few groups of people having quiet conversations while pouring each other drinks.

While Kai was admiring the scenery, a female hostess walked over to him.

"Table for one?"

Kai nodded his head and was lead to a small table close to the entrance. The hostess brought him a tray of teacups and what he assumed to be complimentary tea.

Kai poured himself a cup and stared around the area wondering how he suddenly ended up sitting alone when he had actually come here to try and meet other hunters.

Kai didn't want to waste his time so he called the hostess over.

"How may I help?" She asked professionally when she arrived.

"I actually want to meet up with Hunters and I was told this would be the place?"

The hostess had a curious look in her eyes but she didn't act on her curiosity.

"Indeed what sir says is true, Hunter's usually meet in this place. We also do arrangements in association with the Hunter's Lodge across the street. Anyone looking to team up with or hire a Hunter can do so here"

Kai was relieved.

"How much is it to hire a team?"

The hostess pulled out a small notebook from her bosom and slowly paged through it.

"It would depend on the job, however, 'Black Rose' is a team that is currently taking any jobs involving [Grade-3] or lower beasts for 50 Silver per day"

Kai almost spat out his tea when he heard her. This would mean they would earn 1 Gold every 2 days. Kai had no idea how that was even possible or who was rich enough to even pay for that.

"I'm from out of town so I'm not familiar with their strength?".

Kai was curious as to what type of people could confidently say they could hunt any [Grade-3] beast.

"' 'Black Rose' is a veteran hunter team in Huang City. They are made up of 20 members who are all [Mortal Grade-3] Body cultivators. Their their vice-captain is a well known [Mortal Grade-4] Body cultivator and lastly, their leader is a famous Internal Cultivator. They usually deploy around 5-6 members per request and their leader will rarely ever join the hunts himself"

Kai now saw where their confidence to charge such a high price came from. Their regular members were all as strong as Mina's village chief, Jurgen. The Vice-leader was even stronger than that, plus they had the full backing of an Internal Cultivator as their leader.

Kai was also wondering if it was really Ok for the hostess to give him all that information, but he figured it was probably common knowledge so he didn't overthink it.

"Thank you, I think I'll just register myself as looking for a group for now. What information would you need?".

"Very well," The hostess said in a emotionless tone.

"We need you to register your name, power level, and preferred jobs. The team that invites you reserves the right to test your strength before allowing you to join them. If you are found to have lied, it will be seen as an act of deception towards the whole of Huang City, which is punishable by banishment or death."

Kai unconscious gulped after he heard this but he still decided to continue.

Kai registered his real name, however for power, Kai put down [Mortal Grade-3] Body cultivator. Kai felt that his current [Mortal Grade-2] body was too weak and would t get enough attention, and he wasn't planning on revealing his cultivator status so he went with [Mortal Grade-3].

Using Qi enhancement, Kai could get to strength surpassing [ Mortal Grade-3] so he wasn't too worried about being called out for lying.

The hostess seemed slightly surprised when she read Kai's power level. [Mortal Grade-3] Body cultivators were not too rare, however, most already belonged to specific groups. It was rare to see one of them looking for a group like this.

"Thank you for the information. Please leave your address here and we will send someone to make contact if a team expresses interest"

Kai thanked her and stood up from the table, ready to leave.

"If that will be all, I will be right back with your bill"

The hostess bowed slightly and left

Kai was surprised that there was a bill. He hadn't ordered any food or drinks and only had the complimentary tea.

She came back with a slip of paper which she handed over to Kai. Kai took one look and almost wanted to punch a hole through the table.

"Can...can you please explain why I'm being charged 1 silver coin for tea?"

Kai was trying his best to stay calm but he was starting to feel like this whole place was a scam.

"The tea is complimentary, but, the 1 silver coin is the arrangement fee to look for a suitable group per your requirements"

Kai felt like complaining. There was no talk about costs until it was time to pay. Kai decided to use this as a learning experience and would ask upfront about costs next time.

Kai handed over his only silver coin to her with a heavy heart and quickly left the store. The Hostess saw the pain in his eyes and offered to cancel the request for him, but Kai gave it some thought and decided to pay the fee.

His main goal was to get stronger not only quickly, but also safely. This was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

Kai immediately left the tea house once the transaction was done. He went straight to the Inn and decided to get some sleep. He had been up for over 2 days now and knew the fatigue would eventually catch up to him.

Kai woke up later that afternoon to a knocking sound on his door. He quickly got out of bed and opened it.

On the other side was a man Kai did not know, however, he recognized the leaf symbol on her clothing as the mark the tea house used for all its signage.

"Mr Kai?"

Kai cautiously nodded his head.

"I am here to deliver a message".

The man handed over a letter, gave Kai a small bow then quickly left

Kai closed the door and quickly opened the letter to read its contents. The letter was short but it said that a team had expressed interest in his application and hoped to meet him at his earliest convenience at the tea-house.

"The response came faster than I thought", Kai thought to himself.

Kai look d out the window and saw that the sun was starting to set however it was still the same day.

He left the Inn immediately and headed to the tea house. At this point, Kai was becoming quite familiar with the city so he arrived in record time. Kai walked in however unlike earlier in the morning, the place was a lot busier with many different people at each table.

A different hostess walked up to Kai and asked if he was there for a table, however, Kai just pulled out the letter.

The hostess gently took the letter from Kai's hands and checked the intricate seal on the letterhead.

"Understood, this way please"

She ushered Kai towards the back where various screen doors lined a narrow corridor. She carefully knocked on a screen door three times then slowly opened the door and gave Kai a 'you can go in now' gesture.

Kai was surprised by the efficiency of it all. He slowly entered the private room and saw two people sitting by a ground-level table.

The was a middle-aged man wearing dull green battle armor. His hair was short but neat and he had a cool-looking scar across his right cheek.

The second person was a woman. She looked younger than the man and wore dull green robes that hugged her slim waist tightly. She had long black hair nearly held together by a hairpin behind her head.

The man was the first to speak as soon as Kai walked in.

"Ah, welcome Mr. Kai. You arrived a lot faster than we thought you would so we're a little unprepared. Please, have a seat"

Kai walked in carefully and nodded to them both. He had already put his fisherman's rags over his robes and covered his face with the large straw hat so his features were well hidden.

Kai knew that it was rude to be sitting there with his hat on, but it was part of his disguise so he really had no choice.

"My name is Su Fang, leader of the Jade Serpent team, and this my vice-captain, Su Ling."

"Kai..."

Kai would let them do all the talking to avoid exposing too much information about himself.

Su Fang was surprised by Kai's one-word introduction but he brushed it off. It wasn't easy to run into uncommitted [Grade-3] body cultivators so something like this was still acceptable for him.

"We saw your application and thought you would make a great addition to our team for an upcoming hunt. Your request stated you're only looking for jobs involving a large number of [Grade-1] beasts to fight, correct?"

Kai nodded his head. He had been very specific about this part since his main goal was gathering Qi.

"Then I hope you will join us. Tomorrow we will be heading towards the Eastern Swamp to hunt [Swamp Vine]. Our group has extensive experience fighting these beasts so there is no need to worry."

Kai was surprised by the coincidence. He had just come back from that Swamp after getting chased away by the [Fungus-Ape]. Did they not know about it?

"Do you have an updated map?", Kai asked in a neutral tone.

"I know what you're getting at..." responded Su Fang.

"The [Fungus-Ape] are returning, but this is not a problem. We're confident in being able to detect and safely escape from any large groups".

Kai nodded. He wanted to ask what these methods were but he figured that would be asking for too much when he hadn't even agreed to join them yet. Kai was confident in his speed anyway, so if they could detect them early for him, he could just enhance himself and run away.

"Why do you want the [Slime Vine]?", Kai asked.

He already knew that these beast's corpses were pretty much worthless since they couldn't be skinned for hides or eaten, so he wondered why they would put themselves in danger just to hunt these.

Su Fang and Su Ling looked at each other then Su Fang nodded to Su Ling.

Su Ling turned back to Kai and spoke for the first time.

"This is currently too secret so I cannot say. At least not until you agree to join us first". She then placed a document in the table and slid it over to Kai.

Kai smelled something fishy going on, but he also saw where they were coming from. If they told him everything, what's to stop him from sharing the information with others and ruining their plans.

Kai picked up the team document and read through it carefully. In summary, it said that he agreed to join their team on a one-time hunt to the Eastern Swamp. His payment would be performance-based as he would earn 2 copper for every [Slime Vine] he helped kill and gather.

Kai didn't know how much they were getting for each slime they collected, but in his eyes, their deal was their fortune to have so he could only look at things from his perspective.

Not only would he get paid to collect Qi, but he could also exchange the contribution points for even more money. More importantly, he would be in a group so it should be safer.

Kai was happy with the deal and wanted to sign the papers work right then and there, but he had one last important question.

"Before I agree, I need to know your group's strength...", Kai wasn't sure how they would take this question, but it was important to him. If they were too weak then he would feel safe.

Su Fang nodded to Kai and answered.

"Of course, it's no secret. Our group has 5 members in total including us two. Our other three members are [Mortal Grade-2] Body cultivators and Su Long and I are [Mortal Grade-3] Body cultivators..."

Su Ling quickly interjected...

"My brother and I also have quite a few years of experience..."

Su Fang just laughed as he took a sip from his cup.

"Indeed it is as she says, now...will you join us?"

Kai gave it some thought and re-read the document once more before he decided to sign the contract.

"Perfect, welcome aboard Kai!."

"We'll be heading out in the morning so get some rest. The meeting place will be the Eastern Gates at first light"

[Mortal Grade-2] was Kai's current body level so he knew it well. If they had good teamwork and coordination, they could make easy work out of any [Grade-1] beast. [Mortal Grade-3] was a substantial step about that [Mortal Grade-2] in that they could fight [Grade-1] beasts solo.

The only reason Kai was able to fight [Grade-1] beasts so easily was because he could enhance his body with Qi to essentially reach the strength of [Mortal Grade-3].

With the three of them combined, plus the support of three well-coordinated [Mortal Grade-2] warriors, Kai was confident in fighting or escaping from the [Grade-2] [Fungus-Ape].

When Kai left the room, Su Ling turned to Su Fang.

"Brother, do you think he's actually a [Mortal Grade-3] body cultivator?"

"We'll find out tomorrow. The Intel I've gathered says he left a path of death and carnage in the Eastern Swamps over the last two days so he can definitely hold his own. With him around, we should be able to collect quite a bit"

Su Ling nodded at her brother then looked back at the door Kai had just left from.. She was curious about where this mysterious figure had suddenly come from.

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