Chapter 33
On the boat travelling to the Soba Empire, Qian Yu saw many rogue cultivators as he didn’t stay inside his room that much. Instead, he appreciated the new scenery while travelling on the boat and took this time to enjoy himself a little. The ocean was beautiful. Slowly moving away from the arctic biome, it slowly turned more tropical. More fish and marine life started appearing, dancing for the passengers as they slowly moved across the ocean.
‘Sigh… I didn’t expect this though,’ Qian Yu looked to his side, where there was a group of rogue cultivators. As he started paying more attention to these groups of cultivators, he realized it was pretty simple. They all wore dark color robes and some had some veil or cloth covering their faces. Additionally, they were all quiet and didn’t talk much with others. Some were completely alone, such as Qian Yu and others had formed their own individual small groups.
Currently, he could only describe them with one word. Introverts! Wearing black clothing and not really sociable, there was a reason they were called rogue cultivators.
Yet he knew they weren’t to be underestimated, especially those in groups who had tremendous teamwork. He still hadn’t forgotten how the three rogue cultivators took down the Ice Mountain Tiger so easily.
*Bam!* A large bell was rang, awakening the passengers that they had arrived at their destination, Shipton City.
“That was a fast week…” Qian Yu sighed as he got off the boat. In front of him, the port was completely different. Northern Star City was a port city but it was lacking in comparison to Shipton City. Looking around, Qian Yu saw dozens of other ships in the port. It was completely packed. People were getting on and off, transporting materials, preparing to sail, and it felt a lot more lively and chaotic. It was no wonder this was the biggest port in the western half of the Soba Empire.
Getting off the boat, Qian Yu started observing the people around him. Clothing-wise, everyone was still wearing similarly-style clothes as it was currently winter time and a little chilly. Yet, the most noticeable thing was the skin tones of the people. Notably, they were much darker. Back in the Southern Ice Continent, the people there generally had very light skin tones. As for here, which was a little closer to the equator and had more sunlight, their skin tones were darker. Still, it didn’t really matter much to Qian Yu.
Finally, he went to the city’s auction house to sell off the rest of the Snowdrop Flowers.
“Hello, when is the auction?” Qian Yu asked the receptionist.
“Sorry, there will not be an auction anytime soon as there was just one last week,” he answered.
“Alright, thanks” Qian Yu nodded as he left. With nothing to do, Qian Yu just wandered the city finding a place to settle for the night.
The next day Qian Yu woke up early in hopes of reaching the branch of the sect as early as possible. From the map that he had brought, he needed to travel for two days before he would reach the branch.
Yet as he reached the city gates, he saw there was a large queue of people waiting to leave the city gates. This didn’t happen yesterday and it was extremely rare for a city to forcefully check the identity of the people leaving and entering it. If it happened too often, people could easily get offended and the city lord’s reputation would be lowered.
As such, it was only for special occasions that something like this could occur. Likely, there was a chance that someone dangerous was currently hiding in the city. ‘Well it doesn’t really matter to me,’ Qian Yu thought as he had already decided to leave.
Just as he thought that, he heard some merchants in front of him whispering.
“Boss, do you know what’s going on?” the underling said.
“Don’t tell others but apparently, they are looking for a criminal on the Hunted List. Don’t worry about it,” the merchant boss said.
‘Hunted List? What’s that?’ Qian Yu made a reminder to get some information about it in the future. Possibly, it could be a good source of income. As he leaned in more to eavesdrop, he realized that they had changed their subjects and started talking about random things.
An hour passed and Qian Yu finally left the city after they compared his face to the portrait. ‘Man that guy is ugly as hell, I wonder what he did,’ Qian Yu felt a little uncomfortable when he saw the portrait.
After 2 days, Qian Yu finally reached the branch sect which, compared to the one in the Xia Empire, was completely different. As he reached the top of a mountain, he entered a temple. Looking at the amount of buildings and houses inside, he estimated that there were no more than a hundred people living here. Here, the sect didn’t look impressive at all.
As he was thinking, a male disciple had noticed him. “Hello fellow disciple, I do not recognize you,” the disciple walked up and asked, seeing that Qian Yu had on his sect robes.
Replying, Qian Yu said, “I am here from the main branch of the sect in the Xia Empire. Can you take me to the Elder in charge?”
“Main branch?” Hearing his words, the boy suddenly yelled and got excited, attracting the disciples nearby.
“Oh my god, he’s from the main branch” “What are you doing here” “Can you bring us to the main branch!” the other disciples asked.
“Ahh? Of course...” Qian Yu was suddenly lost as he was swarmed with questions. After a few minutes of explanation, they finally left him alone as he pitied the disciples here. They were truly excited and motivated to cultivating. The ones here were those that didn’t get accepted into the best sects in the Soba country and ended up going to branch sects. Looking at them harshly training, Qian Yu realized that this would have likely been him if he didn’t get into the Ice Arts Sect with special means.
After that, Qian Yu entered the building belonging to the Elder who was in charge of this branch. As he entered, the man noticed his arrival and stop looking at the reports. As there were only a hundred or so disciples here, the Elder could easily recognize that Qian Yu was foreign and asked, “Main branch?”
“Yes Elder,” Qian Yu bowed and went over to his desk before he gave the Elder a scroll, the proof of his mission.
The elder quickly glanced through it. Nodding, he dismissed Qian Yu, “Alright, you can go, make sure you send a report or two so there’s some proof.”
However, Qian Yu didn’t leave as he asked the elder, “Elder, I heard something about the Hunted List on my way here. Is that some sort of bounty system in the Soba Empire?” If it was a bounty system, there was a chance that Qian Yu could earn a decent income with it which would be extremely useful for him.
Hearing his question, the elder thought for a minute before giving Qian Yu an answer, “It isn’t a system setup by the Soba Empire but rather a system setup by the World’s Congress. You are too weak to know anything about it but if you meet or hear anything about someone on the Hunted List, you better get your ass out of there as only a Martial Fighter can qualify to be on that list.”
‘What, it’s not a simple bounty for random bandits or something? Instead it’s a world wide bounty system... ’ Qian Yu was shocked realizing it came from the World’s Congress, an organization that convened the top sects, families, and powers of the world.
“Alright, thank you for the information Elder, I will make sure to send a report every few months,” Qian Yu gave his thanks as he left. From the tone of the Elder, it seemed like he didn’t really care about the contents of the report. Of course, if it was something important, it would be sent back to the sect but he had pretty much confirmed Qian Yu’s idea that the reports weren’t too important. After all, if the sect really needed information, they wouldn’t give the responsibility to a mere qi gathering realm and would rely on someone stronger and more credible.
Essentially, this was what Qian Yu hoped for! Complete freedom on what he could do while getting free benefits from the sect.