A Month Later.

The gentle sun rays of a late afternoon shone directly on Raymond's face, enveloping him in warmth. Raymond was not only basking in the sun, but he was observing the wind. At this point, this was a part of his routine. After he had exhausted himself from cultivating, he would sit in the park and observe the wind. Every now and then, Spencer would come by, and they would have some fun in the city.

Raymond was beginning to enjoy his life in this new world, and his cultivation was steadily progressing forward. After an entire month of practice, Raymond strength had taken a large leap forward, and he was beginning to become more and more powerful. Not only had he just broken through to the 7th revolution of body-refining, but Raymond had seen breakthroughs in all of his martial skills as well.

The only martial skill that didn't reach the transcendent realm of mastery was the Basic Fist Art.

The only thing about his cultivation that was a little disappointing was his sword force. Although he had pondered on it for an entire month, his sword force was still stuck in the intermediate realm. Although that was the case, he had at least further refined it, and he wasn't far from a breakthrough. All he needed was a moment of realisation.

The biggest leap in Raymond's strength was actually from his understanding of the sword itself. With the help of his transcendent mastery in his sword technique and his intermediate realm sword force, Raymond had created a simple sword move. This move looked peculiarly simple on the surface, but it was Raymond's strongest move he could currently use. The only downside of the move was that it drained both his mental and physical stamina.

One thing that Raymond had noticed as he was cultivating was that his cultivation speed had slowed down significantly. It had taken him a month to reach the peak of the 4th revolution, and now it had taken him a month to reach the beginning of the 7th revolution. This cultivation speed was significantly slower, and it would only get even slower in the future. This was also after Raymond had upgraded his talent once. If he didn't upgrade it beforehand, it might've taken him two months instead of one to reach the 7th revolution.

His money was also slowly running out, he only had a little more than 20 gold left. This money would last him a while, especially if he used it sparingly, but Raymond didn't want to live his life sparingly anymore. His goal was to live somewhat comfortably in this life, which meant that he needed both strength and money. Thankfully, these goals didn't seem that hard to achieve for Raymond, all he needed was time. With time, he would steadily grow stronger. With time, he would accumulate more and more money. And luckily for him, time was something he had plenty of, at least for now.

Now that his money was starting to run out, Raymond was ready to earn himself some more. Just cultivating peacefully was nice and all, but Raymond knew that he needed experience in actual combat as well, otherwise he would just be like a flower in a greenhouse, not able to face the harsh winds of the real world. Although there were plenty of opportunities outside of the city walls for adventure, Raymond decided to take a more steady approach.

Next to Kredon's bustling marketplace was a building that was the target of many rogue cultivators, the mercenary association! The mercenary association was a place where people could commission other rogue cultivators to work for them. It was often used by merchants and some larger families without many experts of their own to hire guards and escorts.

Although the chance of getting lucky and earning a lot of money was smaller whilst doing an escort mission, Raymond wanted to play it safe. He didn't even know his real strength anymore, and he felt like it was safer to test his limits if he was surrounded by people that could help him out should he need it. There was also a chance for Raymond to make some connections, no matter how slim that chance actually was.

The only real requirement to becoming a mercenary was to have a clean criminal record as well as have cultivation of some degree. Even a 1st revolution body-refining realm cultivator could become a mercenary, but no one would want to hire them. Although he was a little hesitant at first, Raymond decided to just go for it. The last time he had explored the Greencrest forest on his own, he had gotten incredibly lucky and made a fortune, but he was also forced to flee the city because of the enemies he made. Making a steady income through mercenary commissions seemed like a better idea for now. He couldn't always get lucky.

When Raymond walked into the mercenary association, he got a few weird looks as always, but it wasn't too bad. The receptionist was a pretty lady that was in her twenties, and when Raymond walked up to the counter, she instantly initiated a conversation.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to register as a mercenary."

The lady seemed taken aback by Raymond's request. Raymond couldn't really blame her either, it wasn't every day you saw a blind man register as a mercenary.

"I don't know your situation, but you should probably reconsider kid. This is no playground."

The gruff voice of an older man interrupted their conversation, and Raymond promptly turned around to look at him. After looking at him for a few seconds, Raymond knew that he didn't mean any harm, he was just trying to be helpful. Raymond didn't exactly blame him, this old man didn't know that he could actually see after all.

"Thank you for the reminder, but I've already made up my mind. I'm more useful in a fight than you'd think."

"Alright, good luck on the assessment."

The man didn't seem convinced by Raymond's statement, but he also knew that it wasn't his business in the first place, so he simply turned around and walked away with a sigh. As he walked away, Raymond noticed that he had a bronze-coloured badge with 2 stars on it sitting on his chest, but Raymond wasn't sure what it meant.

"Normally I'd ask you to fill out a form, but since you can't do that, I'll just fill it out for you, is that ok?"

"That's fine."

"Name?"

"Raymond Dawson"

"Age?"

"16"

"Cultivation?"

"7th revolution of body-refining."

The receptionist was suddenly taken aback. "7th revolution of body-refining? And you are just 16?"

"Yeah." Raymond wasn't perturbed by her questioning.

"Wait here for a minute."

The receptionist stopped asking questions and took the form she had just filled out and ran off somewhere. Raymond felt a little baffled by the treatment, but he just found somewhere to sit down and waited for a while. Soon, the receptionist returned, followed by a middle-aged man in black clothing. On his chest was a silver-coloured badge with a single white star on it, it was quite similar to the badge the man from earlier had worn.