Class Change
"Big brother! How much longer?"
"We are nearly there. Just hang on a little more"
"But I am hungry!"
"Qian, just hold on for a little more time. Be patient like me"
The poor 12-year-old boy looked at his twin who gave him a smug smile from her perch on top of the young man and was thoroughly infuriated.
"I am following Big Sister and Big Brother on foot. Unlike a certain cry-baby that had to be picked up so that she would not slow us down"
This time, it was the girl's turn to be furious at her sibling's taunt, causing the twins to start one of their arguments again, causing the two young adults in the group to sigh helplessly.
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(POV Haizi)
Trekking through the massive forest that separates the Heavenly Saint Empire and the Eternal Forests, I am reminded of the many trips that I used to take as a child with my parents back on Earth. Of course, the flora of my past life was not as lush or as plentiful as that of this world, courtesy of more than a century of unchecked pollution.
Thankfully, my survival skills as both a soldier and an outdoor person in my past life have translated well into this world.
Looking behind me at the still-bickering twins, I simply shook my head with amusement.
It really was a good idea to take the Xu siblings out of Taizhou, especially now that the people from the many sects of the empire were slowly trickling into Jilongtan City.
While Yanmei did not know this, the description that she gave for the men who killed her family matches perfectly with what I know of a low-level sect known as the Stone Serpent Sect. Well, I call it a low-level sect but it is actually a fairly strong sect in this region of the Empire.
In this Empire, the nobles held official ranks, but the Sects also had a hierarchy where they did not answer to anyone, in theory. Truth is, despite their independent nature, the Sects were considered lower than that of Noble houses of the same rank.
Just like the Noble ranks, the sect ranks were also divided into 7 ranks.
The Sacred grounds, The Ancient Sects, The Secluded Sects, The Grand Sects, The Upper Sects, The Middle Sects, and the Lower Sects.
While there were only three Sacred grounds, five Ancient Sects, Five Secluded Sects, and Ten Grand Sects, the number of the other ranks or sects is so large that it is extremely hard to keep track of their individual movements, causing all sorts of chaos in the Empire. However, there is another reason for the chaos that the Lower sects, such as the Stone Serpent Sect, cause across the Empire.
While the Sacred Grounds are considered the highest rank of Sects, they are still considered lower in status than the Grand Duke families of the Empire. A similar thing happens when any sect tries to compete with a Noble family according to the ranks, causing great friction between the sects and Noble families.
In order to rectify this, the Sects are always trying to find a way to get into the good graces of the Royal family and make themselves appear better than the Noble families to gain political power. One of the ways that they commonly use is to cause trouble somewhere on the frontiers by sending in disciples from one of their subordinate sects disguised as bandits and then sending in their own disciples to 'kill' the bandits and make themselves look like heroes.
It is a tactic that is truly vile. But no less effective than any other tactic that many of the noble families use regularly to keep themselves in power.
While the existence of this tactic is known to almost all of the upper echelons of the Empire, they cannot do anything since the Sects take extreme precautions to cover up all loose ends and leave behind no traces of their involvement, leaving no room for their enemies to expose their actions.
Seeing how vile these sects are, there is no telling what the representatives of the Stone Serpent Sect would do if they found out that the Xu family that they targeted previously had three survivors living in a frontier town. My guess is that they would wipe out the entire town and make it look like a Demonic beast attack to cover up their traces.
That is why, I decided to take these three out of the town and to the secluded log cabin I built deep in the forest more than a year ago. While the chance of Yanmei and the twins being discovered is very low, especially since the villagers said that only the low-level disciples of the sects arrive at Taizhou while the elders usually stay in Jilongtan City, I cannot take such a risk with my friend's life, so I decided to bring them out here, in the middle of nowhere.
There is also another reason for this impromptu hiking trip that I have taken.
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HOST LEVEL MAXIMUM REACHED
CLASS CHANGE QUEST AVAILABLE
1. THE CULTIVATOR OF WUXING: Defeat the Great Yang Tiger.
REWARD: Random(Gold-Rank) Earth Element Cultivation manual. CULTIVATOR Class unlocked.
WARNING: Choosing this quest will automatically lock other skill trees from the Host. Ki locked. MP locked. All skills from other classes are locked.
2. THE ARCHMAGE OF THE ELEMENTS: Defeat one fire type and one earth type Demonic Beast (Gold-Rank).
REWARD: Fire element mastery increased. Earth element mastery increased. MAGE Class unlocked. MP unlocked.
WARNING: Choosing this quest will automatically lock other skill trees from the Host. Qi locked. Ki locked. Cultivation arts locked. All skills from other classes are locked.
3. THE BODY OF ELEMENTS: Obtain ??? from the tomb located in the Eternal Forests. Use at least one element to refine the body.
REWARD: Fire Element mastery increased. MONK Class unlocked. Ki unlocked.
WARNING: Choosing this quest will automatically lock other skill trees from the Host. Qi locked. MP locked.
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After I killed the Silvermoon Wolf and obtained enough EXP to level up, my EXP meter froze and stopped my level up at Level 40, giving me this class change quest.
From what I gathered after spending an entire day going through the details of the quest, the quest that I choose to complete will determine the direction in which I will grow my abilities.
If I choose the first quest, I will continue to be a somewhat regular Cultivator just like the rest of the humans on this continent. A boring yet stable prospect.
If I choose the second quest, I will lose all of my cultivation and gain the powers and skills of a mage similar to a game character. An unknown prospect with unknown consequences that terrified me and was a definite no from me.
In a similar way, the third option is also an unknown but is the quest I decided to choose anyway.
While I would once again lose all my cultivation and the Qi of the Cultivator class, I would gain something else in exchange.
Frankly speaking, the power of Ki is something that is heavily debated by the many scholars of the empire. Some of them claim it to be extremely superior to Qi while others argue that its limitations far exceed its advantages.
From what I understand, Qi is the energy that exists everywhere in the atmosphere, or as they call it here, the heavens and the earth. A cultivator uses a cultivation art to absorb this Qi and change its nature according to the cultivation technique that they use. Depending on the technique, the Qi can be used in many different ways, but the most prominent effect that all cultivation techniques have as a base is the increased lifespan of the cultivator. Thus, the cultivators of Qi are also known as Immortal cultivators.
Ki, on the other hand, is the energy that exists within the body of all living organisms. When compared with Qi, it is extremely dense and much easier to mold and use. But there are two fatal weaknesses to the use of Ki which has stopped it from becoming a staple for cultivation. It's limited supply since Ki is directly tied to the life force of a creature and overusing it could easily cause the death of the cultivator, and the fact that it is extremely hard to manifest Ki outside the body unless the user has vast quantities of it. The process of increasing the quantity of Ki is also considered barbaric by Qi Cultivator standards since it requires the user to train their body in painful ways. Thus, the cultivators of Ki are also known as Body Cultivators.
When looking at these differences, it might seem like taking the Qi cultivator route would be the best option, but I had a different opinion. While it may be hard to train and utilize Ki in an effective way, it is in fact superior to Qi in every other way possible, theoretically of course.
But, since I have a cheat in the form of this damned system that has the optimizing feature of my IAS, I can find many ways to optimize Ki cultivation and become much stronger than a regular cultivator, guaranteeing my safety and the safety of my loved ones.
This was the reason why I decided to accept the third quest and trekked into this hidden place.
But before I can venture into the forest to search for whatever it is the System is pointing to, I need to take care of the Xu sibling's hunger problem or they might just end up eating me instead.