20 Huang City Day 2

Kai woke up the next morning feeling fresh and relaxed. The previous night had been some of the best sleep Kai had since coming to this world.

Previously he always had to worry about the possibilities of monsters showing up and trying to kill him in his sleep.

Now that he was in a safe city, he felt where could finally breathe and take it easy.

"Master, you're awake". Ryu said with a smile.

Kai almost fell out of bed when he noticed Ryu standing right next to his bed.

"Damnit Ryu, how long have you been standing there?".

"Hehe, just about an hour or so. Sister asked me to inform her the moment you woke up, so I had to watch you closely".

Kai was creeped out but decided to ignore it. He already noticed that Ryu was a bit...' special' ever since they met, that along with being a massive sis-con...

"Speaking of Mina, where is she?".

"Sister went out to look for a carriage to help us get back to the village faster, she should be back soon".

Just as Ryu was finishing his sentence, Mina walked into the room.

"Master, you're awake?".

Ryu scratched his head in embarrassment "Sister, he only now woke up, I was just about to come to find you"

"It's ok, I'm here now," Mina said with a sweet smile.

"Master Kai, we wanted to ask you something important..."

"Sure, go ahead". Kai slowly stretched his stiff body and got out of bed. He had completely given up on having them stop with all the 'Master' stuff and decided to just embrace it

"One of your rules was that if we accept your teachings, we will join your sect...does this mean Master is part of a sect?"

Mina asked the question carefully. She knew how powerful and mysterious Sects were in this world. This entire city was run by a single Sect after all.

"I am not part of any existing Sect. But I do plan on creating a sect one day when the time is right."

Kai put his years of novel reading to good use as he stared out of the window calmly while oozing an air of mysteriousness and confidence.

"My Sect will rival even the oldest and most powerful Sects in this world. Using my unique techniques, I plan on rising to the summit of this world!...what do you say, will you join me in my journey to the top?".

Kai slightly turned his body to the two and extended his arm out. The morning light shining through the window hit his face and bright robes, giving him an unexpected regal look.

Mina and Ryu were completely silent. Both had seen him fight and defeat two Internal Cultivators single-handedly within the blink of an eye. After having witnessed that, they did not doubt his power.

Adding his ability to turn Mina into an Internal Cultivator within just one night had permanently etched his greatness into their minds.

At this point, their lack of knowledge about the cultivation world and constant shocks from Kai had made them believe that he could do whatever he said he could.

"I am willing!".

Mina was the first to speak with one hand on her stomach. Ever since she woke up, she could feel the newly added Qi flowing within her body.

Thanks to her [Divine Yin Physique], she was able to accurately sense the Qi within herself as coming from the new mysterious orb hovering by her navel. Overnight, it had automatically gathered the Qi within her surroundings and stored it.

Her Physique was now feeding off the residual Qi within her body so it no was longer siphoning her life force. Thinking about how her life was no longer in danger of being consumed by her Physique, she felt tears well up as well as a newfound loyalty towards Kai formed.

"I am also willing!"

Ryu was the next to speak. He had initially been suspicious of Kai, however after he saved his sister's life, Ryu was now ready to zealously lay down his life for Kai.

Kai was happy about the results of his actions.

'Looks like they bought my overly cringy boasting, but don't they look a little too motivated?...oh well'

"Good, then from this moment on, I take Mina as my first disciple, and Ryu shall be my second disciple".

The siblings kowtowed to Kai and officially accepted him as their master.

Kai thought he would unlock a hidden system mission by accepting disciples but no announcements were heard to his disappointment.

"Master...This disciple finds it presumptuous to ask, seeing as today is our first day as Master and Student, but can I ask for a short leave of absence to deliver this food to our village?"

Mina asked this sincerely and honestly. She wanted to do this final deed for her village so she could follow Kai with no regrets in the future.

"Sister wait, I believe you should remain here with Master. I can take the carriage alone to deliver the food" Ru said.

"No, that's too dangerous. The beasts will be coming back soon. I can go by myself, you stay here and follow Master's instructions", Mina countered

Kai didn't know what to say. They were way too loving and considerate which was kind of annoying.

"Both of you go, once you've concluded your business in your village, you can come and find me at this Inn again where we will begin your lessons".

This arrangement worked out for Kai as well seeing as he didn't have much he could teach them at the moment. He could use this time to get stronger while coming up with an idea of what to teach the two.

"I understand Master"

"Yes, Master!"

The two answered.

They quickly packed their belongings and the food then got ready to leave. Kai was worried about them but they had done the journey countless times on foot.

This time they had spent an entire 10 copper for a carriage ride so they would be relatively safe.

Kai thought about going with them but he wasn't interested in their village's problems, as heartless as that seemed.

The way their chief Jurgen treated him still left a foul taste in Kai's mouth so he wouldn't go out of his way and put himself in danger for that place.

He only felt worried for his new disciples and wished he could have thought them some self-defense before they left, however, he had no Qi so could not even use [Sub-Core Manual] to transfer basic knowledge to them.

Kai walked them to the carriage station by the entrance of the city. There were many [Ceehorn], which were the massive Lion hybrid-looking beasts strapped to the carriages.

The [Ceehorn] looked ferocious yet in reality were surprisingly docile. Kai remembered that these creatures were the main source of income for the Twin-Lions Sect of Huang City, so he added buying a personal [Ceehorn] to his bucket list.

"Goodbye, Master...We will be back in a few days so please wait for us" Mina said with sad eyes, obviously reluctant for them to part ways.

"Stay safe, if fate wills it, we will meet again. However, If you do not return within one month, then I will go to the village to make sure you are safe. Try to stay alive even if you run into any danger"

Kai came up with this on the spot seeing as he didn't have anything better to say. However, the looks of revere in their eyes resurfaced as tears linked to an unknown emotion began to well up in their eyes.

"Thank you! we definitely won't delay the trip so long as to make you come to find us, however, your promise is reassuring!" Ryu said enthusiastically.

Mina just wiped away the tears and smiled.

The [Ceehorn] carriage finally took off and Kai watched it disappear over the Horizon. Kai was now alone again in this world but at least he was in a city so he was relatively safe and had options.

It was still quite early in the morning so Kai decided to get some breakfast before heading to the Hunter's Lodge.

He found a place selling rice cakes and tea but realized the cost was 3 copper which was more than he had paid for his entire outfit the day before.

Kai had less than 20 copper coins and didn't have a reliable way of making more, for now, so he didn't want to waste anymore.

He headed straight in the direction of the Hunter's Lodge and didn't waste any more time. On his way, he looked through the items in the window sills of random shops he passed by.

He was both assessing the prices of the different goods, but also using [Qi Detection] to look for any high Qi value items.

Doing this, Kai noticed an interesting pattern. items like weapons and jewelry had higher Qi values than random things like toys or clothing.

The items that contained the highest Qi that he had seen were a [Grade 2- Great Maul [ 120 Qi] as well as a [ Grade 2-Ruby Ring [102 Qi].

Both the weapon or ring would guarantee Kai Rank-E manuals, but the prices were 65 and 50 Silver respectively which was unimaginable for Kai. Stealing them was also out of the question for obvious reasons.

Kai doubled his pace as he realized how poor he actually was. He couldn't even afford a decent breakfast let alone items that have decent Qi values.

Kai reached the Hunter's Lodge which was located near the market he had visited the previous day. However, the massive Hunter's Lodge building was even more out of the way at an isolated corner of the street by itself.

There was a ton of traffic going both in and out of the massive building. Large beast carcasses were being transported in, while crates upon crates were being wheeled out and onto carriages.

Kai woke up from his surprised state when he saw a group of burly men unloading the carcass of extremely ugly creatures off a carriage.

Some of the beasts were badly mangled and some were even charred beyond recognition, making Kai wonder how they had been killed. Kai walked over to the building, however before he could reach the entrance, he was stopped by a sudden voice behind him.

"Stop right there boy, this is no place to be playing around!".

Kai turned around and saw another burly man, however, this one had a yellow strap over his right bicep. Kai figured this meant the man was probably the foreman j charge so it saved him the time of looking for him.

"Hello, my name is Kai. I was told you may have work here?".

"You want to work here?".

The man eyed Kai suspiciously then looked at his body which was covered in robes. Even with the robes on, the man could still tell that Kai was too scrawny to do any real work.

"Go back home kid, there's no work for weak people at this site."

Kai expected to be dismissed because of his age so he had a few tricks up his sleeve ready to go.

"At least check my work first before you decide"

Kai took out his is Hare-skin backpack and showed it to the Foreman.

"Enough you're wasting my precious time so if you don't lea...wait a minute...Is this made out of Vicious Hare hide?".

Kai was yet again surprised by how many people knew about the Vicious Hares.

"It is indeed. I found one during my travels and was able to successfully skin it. Have a look".

Kai handed over the bag to the man who proceeded to inspect with an unnaturally high amount of enthusiasm.

"Oh this softness, it's indeed Vicious Hare hide. It's a shame that something this precious was used to make a mere backpack of all things. What a waste..."

Kai was a little annoyed by the man's comments but he didn't let it show on his face. He simply let them man finish before he chimed in.

"What do you say about the quality of my skinning work?"

In this new world, Kai was confident in his body's innate survival skills, including skills like skinning and tanning hides.

"Hmm, the quality is passable. If you truly skinned this yourself then you may have some use...very well, follow me and I'll test you myself".

"Sure", Kai said confidently.

For some reason, all the burly men Kai had met in this world were either short-tempered, self-righteous, or both. Luckily for Kai, he had ample experience of dealing with these types of people from his previous life.

The man lead Kai into the large Hunter's Lodge building. The place seemed to be a large factory with all types of workers quickly and efficiently skinning all manner of beasts.

This defied what Kai expected the Hunter's Lodge to be, seeing as this was just a massive factory.

"Here we are, skin this Rock Basilisk and I'll inspect the quality myself. You have five minutes".

The man handed Kai a skinning knife and then sat on one of the beast carcasses to watch.

Kai didn't panic and simply took over the knife. The beast before him was an odd-looking lizard covered in hard scales that resembled rocks.

[Grade-1 Rock Basilisk [Qi 33]

To the man"s surprise, Kai expertly used the knife to start in the strategic areas below the beck and under its short arms. After 2 minutes he had successfully separated the beast's hide which he handed over to him.

"hmm, not bad" The burly man said while trying to hide the astonishment of what he just witnessed.

For Kai, he had never actually seen this creature before. His body instinctively identified the weak spots. Cutting in those areas first would drastically reduce the amount of time and effort he had to exert on the task.

The burly man took the hide and carefully inspected it. He seemed satisfied by the quality and not just the speed.

"I'll give you 1 copper for every 5 [Grade-1] beasts and 2 copper for every 5 [Grade-2] beast that you can skin. However; the quality needs to be the same as this. I will also give you an additional copper for every set of 50 hides you get me.

Kai quickly did the calculations in his head. Assuming he spent 2 minutes skinning each beast, he could earn between 6 and 12 copper an hour.

It was honestly dismal and Kai wasn't too happy about it, however looking at the number of people in the factory, it didn't seem like there was any shortage of hands.

The man noticed the look in Kai's eyes and quickly added.

"No negotiations..."

In the end, Kai decided to take the job. He would spend the entire day here to see how much money he could make by the end of the day.