Yong Heng

Today could be said to be one of the rowdier days for the bar. Loud music along with the conversations and fights going on from table to table gave the room a very unorganized atmosphere.

The aroma of alcohol permeated the air and its stench could be detected in the breath of almost every single person present.

Although the crowd seemed like a bunch of hooligans and ruffians, underestimating the people in here would be a huge mistake.

This was one of the main halls of the guild situated in Water Cloud City. These bunch of ruffians were mercenaries and adventurers for hire. And while they might not seem like much, the average strength of the people within the room wasn't something to scoff at.

In their world, monsters and wild beasts were known to roam the forest and outer regions of land. These beasts were serious threats and even a group of city soldiers would have a tough time dealing with even one monster. Yet people like them threw themselves into battle against such monsters daily.

This was because the flesh and bones of these creatures was worth a ton of money. One day of hunting could easily pay out the same money a person would earn from a week of hard work. And the more rare and powerful a monster was, the more expensive their corpse became.

And this was just the corpse itself, if you were somehow able to catch one alive then the payment would be insane.

These monsters were so expensive because cultivators could use the body to assist in their cultivation or for forging equipment. Of course this only consisted of the weakest of cultivators who haven't even reached the first level of Qi refinement yet. The stronger ones would have more specified requests that they'd released out to public, saying they would pay a hefty sum for the a certain beast or monster.

This was where the guild came in. They were responsible for looking over these requests and giving them to people who were more suited to hunt the prey. This way the number of corpses from foolishly arrogant people who bit off more than they could chew would be kept to a minimum.

They held a system where only the more impressive and outstanding individuals would be able to hunt the higher level monsters. And there were a few of such people within the guild.

Some of the top warriors were actually also rogue cultivators. In fact there was even a Qi refinement level two expert! After all cultivators didn't only need beast materials to train themselves. They needed other resources as well and this was a perfect way to obtain money to get those materials.

Such a thing wasn't rare and everyone within the guild would usually treat these cultivators with utmost respect.

Of course with their high status and privileges some arrogance seeped into their personalities as well. Luckily the guild master of the city usually weren't pushovers either.

Rumors had it that the guild master of Water Cloud City was in the third level of Qi refinement. And his presence kept the other warriors in check at all times.

And on this day in this guild, something strange was about to happen.

The doors to the bar opened up that afternoon while everyone was still putting on a jovial expression. Although they seemed happy without a care in the works, the competition within the guild was fierce. Seeing the door open suddenly, everyone looked over to see who was entering without giving any hints of malicious intent.

Surprisingly, a spindly little man who appeared to be very young entered through the entrance. He had long black hair, pale white skin, and jet black eyes. He was also very thin, to the point where it seemed like any step he took could put him at risk of breaking a limb.

No one could tell much about his facial features as he wore a strange mask with a demonic looking design on it.

This was Xue Chang.

The manual he showed Wu Jie just hours prior to this event was another skill manual he found in the pile given to him by Xue Hai. It was called the muscle and spine transformation art. It was a miraculous skill that allowed one to morph their body and height in virtually any way you wanted to.

The skill in itself was very difficult to master and the transformation caused a lot of pain. But Xue Chang had been practicing with it frequently, as such he had plenty of time to get used to the process.

This was not a skill that needed spiritual force to activate shockingly enough. Instead it needed another source of power called life force. The energy that formed the basis and foundation of longevity for all living things.

Life force was what kept you alive and progressed your body to further stages. And if one were to lose all their life force, all that would await them was death.

Yet this was different for Xue Chang. He discovered that while his other areas may be lacking, he actually held and abundant amount of life force in his body. It wasn't something the average human should've been able to possess, but he did!

The unordinary amount of life force was also the reason why he was so strong. No matter how much he worked out and lifted, if his muscles tore and shredded themselves, his life force would repair any damage to his body immediately.

This allowed him to efficiently spend his time in training without having to take long breaks. At most he'd spend an hour or two resting before continuing to strengthen himself for the rest of the day.

Not minding the stares being thrown at him, Xue Chang walked up to the front desk, which also acted as the bar, and sat down in front of the tender.

"I'd like to register as a hunter." Although his appearance had changed, his voice did not. As such it was still the high pitched voice of a ten year old. This caused many of the gruff older men to laugh at him wildly.

The bar tender stopped what he was doing and looked up at Xue Chang coldly. Looking the spindly man up and down, the bar tender smirked and said, "That'll be ten silver pieces then. After you pay the sum, we will give you a test to see what rank you'll be set at."

The currency within the city was pretty simple. It consisted of copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins. The rate of exchange was a thousand copper for one silver, a hundred silver for a gold, and ten gold for a platinum. Usually the average family earned about half a silver coin every month. The cost to register at the guild was worth over a year of a person's income!

The price given at the reception bar was the standard cost of becoming a hunter. Those who were truly strong wouldn't mind spending this much money as the profit they'll make will be enough to pay off this debt in just a few weeks. While those who were overconfident would be dead soon, so no harm in ripping them off a little.

Xue Chang didn't even flinch as he handed over the ten coins. After all, for someone who spent gold coins every month just for training wouldn't care for this bit of money.

After accepting the money, the tender was about to lead him over to the testing area. But just before he could lead the way, Xue Chang grabbed the man's arm.

"Wait, I have one other thing." his voice squeaked out quickly before the man could say anything.

Xue Chang handed over an envelope containing a letter written to the guild master. When the receptionist saw it, he gave a curious glance over at the masked individual. And before he could even attempt to open it, the hand of Xue Chang tightened around his wrist.

"Remember, this is only for the guild master."

Releasing his grasp on the tender's hand, four visible bruises could be seen around his wrist. Feeling a cold sweat form on his back, the bar tender nodded his head vigorously and ran up the stairs behind him to where the guild master was situated.

Coming down soon after, the man handed over a document to him. Xue Chang took it into his hands and read over it. It was just the normal, "If you die we can't do anything about it. We aren't responsible" form. He didn't even look at it long before quickly signing his name at the bottom. He then walked over to a wall in the room filled with different assignments and requests given by others. Grabbing one he liked, Xue Chang promptly left the room soon after.

This was a very surprising sight for the other guild members in there. Usually the person would go to a room in the back to test out his strength and be given a rank. The rank corresponded to the level of monsters they could face.

F rank being the lowest while up to A rank was the highest for the average martial artist. The strength of the beast would correspond to the letter grade. F also being the lowest ranked monster, creatures which even common men could handle. While rank A were creatures that only powerful martial artist who spent years perfecting their craft could face.

This wasn't the limit though. There were creatures whose strength went even beyond that. At this point they were as strong as cultivators and their strength were ranked by numbers. One being the lowest and nine being the highest.

But beasts like those were few and far in between. As such most requests were rank A or lower. Only the cultivators in the guild would settle numbered requests.

They were curious as to why the man could just take an assignment, which was only given to those who received a rank, before even being tested. But when they looked at the document he signed, they found something incredulous.

"Rank A! How is that possible!? What letter did he give the guild master?"

"Was the guild bribed? What is this bullshit?!"

"Who was he? I've never seen him before!"

"Yong Heng? What a strange name. To think he claims himself to be everlasting!"