I had not been able, and neither willing in truth, to read the whole book. There were thousands of pages, after all.

Who, with a sane mind, would read thousands of pages of rules, regulations, and their relative punishment?

I had taken from it what I needed, though.

Regarding the house, I could do reparations but nothing more. If I ever wished to improve it, I'd need to buy, and, from what I read, it would not be cheap.

It would also be stupid.

It seems that if one entered the Inner Sect, became an elder, or died, the house would return to the Sect, and the money would be lost along with the improved house. Your family would have to leave it, of course, if you had one.

So I would just have to repair it. It was not a problem I could tackle right now, though.

I was broke, after all.

The few coins I had probably would just evaporate in a few meals, and, therefore, I needed to find more. I had cut it way too close when I brought my money. Uncle had warned me that the prices were higher here, and I brought way more than I thought I would need – in the end, I had still underestimated it.

Now I needed work as soon as possible.

Or an assignment, to be more precise.

The sect had an Assignment Hall, inside which the disciples choose a task to complete in exchange for sect credits. Those credits could be used to access various places, courses, or benefits inside the sect, and they could also be exchanged for resources or money. They couldn't be bought, though.

I had to complete at least five tasks each week if I was in the seventh group. If a job lasted days, each one taken to complete it would be counted as a single separate job. Also, the lower the house group number, the lower the required days.

There were also tasks that would be considered as multiple assignments even if they took less than a day to complete, or ones that just needed you to do something to completion before the task was considered finished, regardless of how much time you spent doing it.

Of course, most still probably took more than the required number to receive more credits.

The difference between the higher rankings and the last places, like me, was that the higher you were, the more time you could dedicate to cultivation. Also, the tasks were more lucrative, so taking a few jobs a month was worth more than all the ones we did.

I didn't care, though. I didn't need, or better, I couldn't, dedicate too much time to cultivate each day, and I also didn't know if I would ever reach the peak of Qi Gathering in my lifetime, let alone Foundation Establishment.

The senior calculated that one could reach the peak of this realm in around a hundred years with his technique, if one could cultivate at least three to four hours a day.

It was too far away for me to care, and who knew what could happen in a hundred years.

Therefore I headed to the Assignment Hall with a light heart, and not a care in the world.

Things did not go as planned, though.

There were many assignments: gathering herbs, tending to herb gardens, hunting beasts, and some others were what I was familiar with. There were also many other jobs.

There was only one hitch in the plan. The jobs I knew how to do all catered to mortal's needs, and thus I lacked the knowledge or strength to do most of the ones for cultivators. The ones I could do were those that could be completed by most, because of the lack of requirements, and were low-paying and tedious.

I was not someone that could be stopped by merely this, though.

I came here to find a better life, and I will have it, goddammit!

I was no stranger to hard work – if I had to study and work at the same time, then so be it.

So I registered for one, and left.

The first assignment was, ironically, farming – one of the things I thought I'd never do again.

There was a difference, though.

Just like the herbs, the crops here were infused with qi. The soil, the air, and the water were all extremely rich in qi in the sect – more than anywhere else. For certain places, they also employed formations to concentrate it even more.

It didn't seem to be in use for the fields, since the concentration was probably enough for the purpose.

When I presented myself there, an Elder was supervising the work… maybe. The Elder was a white-haired old man, maybe nearing the end of his lifespan as a cultivator. He was just reading a book under the shade of a tree.

"Greetings Elder, I am disciple Gongsun Xianyuan, and I took the assignment for fieldwork," I said before bowing.

The Elder just looked up then called another disciple.

"Show him the piece of land he has to till today," he said, then returned to his book.

"Follow me," said the disciple.

We then reached a shed where he handed me a hoe – a very heavy hoe.

“What?” I said unconsciously.

“Is something wrong?” he said.

"No, it's just that I thought I'd use a plough," I said. I had come rather early, so there were not many people around yet. And while I didn't see horses or oxen around, I hadn't thought much about it. But a hoe?

"Ah, you must be new," he said, understanding my doubt.

“Yes, I just came in yesterday and took this assignment, since it was one I was familiar with. I lived on a farm," I explained.

“Mm, I see. Well, things are different here. You'll see soon," he said as he led me away.

We then reached the land I had to plow. It was subdivided into various squares of maybe fifty square meters.

“You'll have to till this square today," he said.

I looked at him and at the square, then back at him again.

"I know what you want to ask, but you'll understand when you start. Before you do, though, be careful not to emit any qi. Absorbing, and circulating, is fine, but if you were to leak off any, you'd have your task annulled for the day. When you're finished, come to bring the hoe to the shed, the points will be assigned tomorrow morning.” he said, then went away.

Curious about all of this, I just went into the square and swung the hoe.

I understood then, and I couldn't believe my eyes.

I crouched down and looked at the amount of earth I moved. It was barely a centimeter of dept. Trying to dig with my hands made me realize how hard it was to move it. It wasn't like it was packed hard but just hard to move. After thinking for a while, the only explanation I came up with was that it was because of the high qi density – other than that, I didn't know what it could be.

Things made more sense now. The weight of the hoe, the lack of animals, the small squares. Looking at them now, they didn't seem that small anymore.

Shaking my head in dismay, I just stood up and started swinging – I had a lot of work to do.

In the swing before, I hadn't put much strength, believing the soil to be normal, but now I used all my power. It worked, but by the time I finished, that evening, I was dead on my feet.

I went to bring back the hoe, just now noticing I was one of the last few that were still working, despite being among the first to start. There had been maybe more than a hundred of us in this field today. Just circulating the qi in the meridians helped, to some degree, to reduce the fatigue and increase the body attributes – in my case it was an extremely small degree.

I still had some food packed before coming to the sect, so I headed straight home and ate, before collapsing to bed.

Five days later, I was finally free from the tasks.

The first thing I did was to search for Cousin Guixin. My uncle said he would come to find me after I joined the sect, but I still hadn't seen a hair of him.

Maybe he’s busy, I thought as I headed for the sixth district. He gave the number to uncle before I came here, and even if he changed it, he probably wouldn't be far away.

When I arrived at the house in question, I saw that the plate had a different name on it, and as I searched around, I didn't find it anywhere. Baffled, I went to knock on the house he should have occupied.

A woman came out looking slightly annoyed.

“Yes?” she asked after scanning me.

"Greetings, Senior Sister, I just wanted to ask if you knew where I could find senior brother Ying Guixin. He had given me this house number to find him." I asked politely after I cupped my hands in greeting.

“Oh, senior brother Ying has broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm three weeks ago and moved up. I don’t know his address, you should ask the Management Hall. Do you need anything else?” she asked.

"No, thank you, Senior Sister," I said, and she went back inside.

I couldn't help but notice a trend in the way many people in the sect behaved; curt, almost to the point of rudeness, annoyed at times, or suspicious.

Not everyone was like that, but there sure were many more than I had ever met before.

I found the right house after I asked at the Hall. I was still in the sixth district but another section, where most of the weaker Foundation Establishment disciples stayed. Unfortunately, after I knocked, no one came out – I'd have to try another day.

With nothing better to do, I headed for the Library. I also wanted to go to the Martial Repository, but the credits to enter were still too many for me. I wanted to wait for when I found a better paying assignment, before I started spending too much.

The Library's lower section was actually free. There were no heavenly secrets there for sure, but I didn't need that. For now, I just needed to understand a profession to a basic level so that I could follow instructions when asked to complete a task.

I wanted to find something related to herbs at first, but I had to reconsider. If I wanted to make credits as soon as possible, I needed a profession that required less starting knowledge, and I had already found one that I was interested in – forging.

The requirements in the assignment hall for those who wanted to start there had only been to know the name of the tools and procedures – no prior experience was required.

That was what I had to search then.

When I reached the Library, after a few wrong turns, I was left stupefied.

It’s bigger than the Mayor’s residence! I thought in awe.

Well, if the sect started to collect books since its foundation, then it should be at least this big, I suppose. Seven thousand years are not a small amount of time, after all, I thought, after I came out of my stupor.

I entered the doors feeling like an ant walking in a house of giants.

A big slate near the entrance detailed all the things one could and could not do inside. One of the rules was that we couldn’t take the books from the shelves on our own. We had to make a request to one o the librarians and wait at the tables. We also had to register any book we brought out – if it was returned damaged the fine would be far more than the cost of the book.

They were strict rules, but people often did stupid things, so I didn’t think they were unwarranted.

And besides, I wouldn't know where to look, if I had to search by myself.

Spotting a man walking near me with the badge of a librarian on his clothes, I stopped him. "Greetings, Senior Brother, it's my first time here, and I wanted to take a look at some books. How should I proceed?"

The man looked me up and down. I had on my casual clothes, and they were well worn but clean.

"I can see that," he said in a disgusted tone, "sit at one of the tables and don't touch anything with those hands. Someone will speak to you then."

I just stared as he walked away, completely dismissing me.

Wonderful. Just wonderful, I thought, trying to hold myself from talking back.

I was sure to die due to a vein popping in my brain sooner or later.

Cultivators are dicks.