As Xing Xun Heads back to her parents' side, after giving me her impassioned hug, I can see her father looking surprised at her actions. Clearly, such things aren’t normal for her. He quickly recovers and hands her the orb, so that she can increase her cultivation speed.

Just like before, the room darkens and a bright light shines from the orb itself. I notice the room is ever so slightly darker and the orb is just a tad bit brighter than for the others.

But just as quickly as it had started, did it end. And then, a slightly awkward, but excited silence rains throughout the home. Considering that the orb not only speeds up cultivation, it also increases the strength to a tier higher, it’s clear she’ll be an absolute powerhouse.

While there’s good energy in the home right now, a brief glance outside sees that the sun is out and bright. I know I have more things I need to do before I reach the sect… I need to wrap this up.

Broaching the silence, I say a few words.

“So, I hear you have a debt to pay.”

…

If the atmosphere was warm before, now it’s frigid. I change it back up with my next words.

“This will help to get everything back together and you guys successful again.”

I place down one gold and a half gold coin. Equal to around $150,000, or worth a decently sized cultivator friendly home.

Subconsciously, my eyes draw towards Daughter With the family. Looking to see her reaction. Especially considering her predictive abilities. Her eyes are bright towards me, and my scan gives me a hint of what might go through her mind.

She seems to be surprised. This was a very unlikely situation, but still possible from the little she’s gathered about me. But no matter how unlikely it is or if she predicted it, this is an enormous gift. One that can’t easily be repaid.

Which is why the father begins immediately declining the gift, even to the point of trying to turn his eyes away from it to prevent them from being glued to them.

Before he can continue, he sees the look on my face, and then goes silent. Quietly, he collects the money and deeply bows towards me. The wife and daughter do the same. Based on my estimates, their debts were about half of this.

Which is honestly remarkable, considering that they used to be a wealthier group, with a larger amount of money required to keep them going. This means that they manage to actually work their debt down to this amount.

However, this is also why the scan likely made it so important to reach here before a certain time. After all, the interest rates on the debt are massive. they were selling the last of their worthwhile items.

If paid in full, with the remaining $70,000, they could still afford a luxurious home w/ plenty of land. Though, it wouldn’t have much access to qi.

Which wouldn’t be a problem with their cultivation speed and exceptional breathing/meditation techniques.

They could rebuild their group and go from there.

Considering the daughter and her vast intelligence… I suspect it won’t be such a simple path. As they said it in my world, ‘It takes money to make money.’

But with this debt paid off, I can finally leave.

They continue to bow, and I place a hand on each of their shoulders, one by one, saying goodbye.

“I’m really glad I met you guys. I’m looking forward to seeing how strong you guys can get. Good luck, we’ll talk soon.”

And then I dart out, using my stealth scanning ability to hide myself. As I leave, I can feel Xing Xun’s eyes staring out at me, long after I disappeared.

…

I soar through the streets, now using a stealthy, flexible movement technique. This one use less qi than others, but if needed, I can switch to a different one.

Normally, it’s difficult to switch between them, but I use my scan to help my body adapt quickly. The transition may be tough, but still possible.

My thoughts drift over to the taming group I just Left many of my creatures at.

Should I go back formally join the group? Without a doubt there're many benefits I could receive from them.

No…

I feel I will be in a better position to negotiate once I am formerly part of the sect at a higher level. That might be why they wanted me to join so badly and were rushing to the location.

While they are the largest group, there are others around this area that may be more specialized, but quickly overtake competitors with knowledge such as mine.

Obviously, that would get me killed, but to prevent such a thing from even coming close, they would give me greater benefits to avoid such a scenario.

The same goes for the alchemy research group.

They haven’t yet reached out to me, but more than any group, they would want to work with me.

While the knowledge is a big part of it, it’s the motive behind how I use it that will probably interest them. I’m continuously bringing more and varied recipes to the market, basically for free. Groups like these aren’t in this for money, but more for expanding the reaches of their own work and for some pseudo altruistic reasons.

It's pseudo, because it just lets them do things under the table that much easier.

The main motive for these types of groups is fame, research, and leverage. A perfect example would be the rat scenario. By copying my method and doing it themselves, they could show the power of their group, thus attracting more members; practice use cases for such techniques; and, most importantly, tie themselves deeper to the sect.

Why the sect? Well, they now have a regular service they can provide when the sect wants to attract more potential members by healing the masses. Proving their ‘righteousness’.

Thus, I’m reasonably sure that several benefits will be offered to me after I pass this test.

With all this said, I’m really thinking I should head straight to the sect and get this done with.

Changing my direction to the mountaintop in the distance, where the sect is housed, I make sure that I’m being as stealthy as possible. At least, until I get close.

As an additional safeguard, I purchase another layer of clothes to cover myself with. Adding in lumps and other things to distort the shape of my body.

The clothes wear heavy on my body, making me feel like a bulky dude. I dip between multiple people, hidden behind the surprisingly high amount of tall people, like myself.

It’s a good thing I’ve taken these precautions. As I move through the crowds, I can see groups of people and cultivators heading towards the nearest gates. Some whispers between them give the indication that they are helping with the search outside the walls for a cultivator of my description.

Normally, the information that I had gotten smuggled into the city would be public among the information groups, by this time. However, part of my scan parameters was to make sure that the smuggler and the people involved wouldn’t give away my information.

At least, not readily.

So, while I dip between crowd to crowd, there are only a few cultivators I truly have to watch out for that are still keeping an eye out, despite the notice that I’m likely outside the walls.

As I move steadily towards the set, one thing that is helping me not be as noticeable is the fact that I’m not looking towards the mountain, but am still heading in that direction.

The downside to this approach is that it took me all the day just to get ¾ of the way there.

I have a few choices to make.

I could wait until the last minute to go up to the site to reach the time limit. Or I could head up early to get it out the way.

Since I already know there are several groups out to get me and delay me from joining at the higher levels, it’s barely even a thought before I head directly towards the sect again.

Initially, I head towards the stairs, but then I realized they wouldn’t allow me to go up through there, as there are other perspective members trying to take their tests.

Instead, I head up the generic way.

Before me, it is a path converging from many others, with many people traveling along it.

Despite the many architectural wonders I’ve seen thus far, the varied movements and crowds of people all converging into this one area is a wonder of itself.

There seem to be multiple lines and pass for different people. Just looking at it causes me to need my scan to figure out where I should go.

And that’s when I hear the rumble of a cart barreling down the road from one path towards this one. And on that path a little way ahead is a young child moving back into one of the lines.

They turn towards the cart and seem frozen in place. And if they don’t move, they’ll be run over by the fast cart.

… Really?

Why does this cliché have to happen now?