Becoming a Mercenary

Although he was worried, Master Lei Yi truly longed for the Great Yellow Elixir.

So he could only ask politely, "Young Friend Yang, go ahead and name your conditions. I'll do my best to satisfy anything within my power."

Yang Lingtian glanced at Master Lei Yi and said directly, "All right, then I'll add one more condition."

"If the Lei Family of Shenwu City causes trouble for the Chen Family during this period, I need your True Elixir Pavilion to step in and protect the Chen Family for three months."

"Agree to that, and I'll continue giving you the Great Yellow Elixir when the time comes. I'll also include a new Third-Grade Pill Formula."

"If you refuse, then the agreement is void, and you can forget about taking the Great Yellow Elixir."

His blunt words left no room for negotiation.

Yang Lingtian also did not dare ask the True Elixir Pavilion to protect the Chen Family forever. After all, that was impossible.

Three months was neither too long nor too short. It should still fall within the True Elixir Pavilion's range of acceptance.

Master Lei Yi was stunned when he heard this. He still could not figure out what was going on.

But Master Lei Yi desperately wanted the Great Yellow Elixir, and he could obtain another Third-Grade Pill Formula as well.

Without asking why Yang Lingtian wanted this, he readily agreed.

"All right. It's only the Lei Family of Shenwu City. If they cause trouble for your Chen Family, I'll step in."

The two discussed a few more matters and went over some details. After that, Yang Lingtian hurriedly left once again.

After Yang Lingtian ran out of Tianchen City again, an hour passed, and the effect of the Swift Wind Talisman ended.

He had no choice but to descend from the sky and continue fleeing on foot, not daring to stop.

Yang Lingtian's heart was extremely complicated. He knew that after leaving this time, he would not be able to return to the Chen Family for a long while.

Unless his strength became sufficient to deal with the Lei Family, he did not want to return and bring trouble to the Chen Family again.

After leaving this time, he would have to venture alone through this perilous world, a world filled with the aura of slaughter at every turn.

At this time, Lei Gang searched everywhere outside Tianchen City but failed to find Yang Lingtian.

Blinded by rage, he indeed returned to the Chen Family, intending to wipe them out and vent his fury.

Lei Gang once again arrived above Chen Manor, blazing with anger. Without saying a word, he began attacking the manor.

A powerful attack blasted straight toward Chen Manor.

Chen Zhengqing had already returned to the Chen Family by then, so naturally, he could not allow Lei Gang to run wild.

"Lei Gang, don't push your luck!" Chen Zhengqing flew out.

At the same time, he sent out a sword ray that shattered Lei Gang's attack.

The two attacks collided violently, producing a tremendous boom.

After Chen Zhengqing reached the sky, the two once again faced each other in midair.

"Today, I'm going to flatten the Chen Family. If you want someone to blame, blame that fine son-in-law of yours!" Lei Gang said domineeringly.

The commotion once again drew everyone's attention.

"How overbearing is the Lei Family? They actually said they're going to flatten the Chen Family."

"This is too outrageous. They're actually fighting so recklessly in our Tianchen City without any restraint."

"Alas, who can blame Lei Gang for being a Mid Golden Core expert? Our Tianchen City has no Mid Golden Core expert capable of suppressing him."

The crowd whispered among themselves, all feeling that the Lei Family had gone too far.

"Then let's fight again!" Chen Zhengqing was also consumed by fury, but he did not want to say more.

Just as they were about to clash again, a booming voice rang out.

"Family Head Lei, please stop."

The speaker was none other than Master Lei Yi, and everyone's eyes turned toward him.

They were all confused. Why had the True Elixir Pavilion gotten involved?

Lei Gang knew a little about Tianchen City. As the Chief Alchemist of the True Elixir Pavilion, Master Lei Yi was someone he had heard of.

Lei Gang's expression tightened as he asked, "Master Lei Yi, what are you trying to do?"

"Your True Elixir Pavilion has always stayed out of disputes between the various families. Are you planning to interfere this time?"

Master Lei Yi replied with confidence, "That's right. Our True Elixir Pavilion will protect the Chen Family for three months."

"During these three months, the True Elixir Pavilion does not want the Chen Family to suffer any damage."

"As for the reason, you don't need to know."

Lei Gang's brows knitted tightly at this. He had not expected the Chen Family to have the True Elixir Pavilion backing them.

This is no simple matter!

Lei Gang was still extremely wary of the True Elixir Pavilion.

After all, the True Elixir Pavilion's influence spread throughout the entire Star-Moon Dynasty, and most cities had a branch of the True Elixir Pavilion.

Lei Gang let out a cold snort and left.

Thus, the Chen Family temporarily escaped the crisis.

"My heavens, the True Elixir Pavilion actually stepped forward to protect the Chen Family!" the crowd exclaimed.

"What kind of powerful background does the Chen Family have? They actually have enough face to make the True Elixir Pavilion come forward and shelter them."

Even Chen Zhengqing was puzzled. He did not understand why the True Elixir Pavilion had stepped forward to protect the Chen Family.

He immediately went before Master Lei Yi and cupped his hands. "Thank you for stepping forward, Master Lei Yi."

"May I ask why you helped our Chen Family? Of course, if it's inconvenient to say, then forget I asked."

Master Lei Yi did not hide the matter. "Yang Lingtian requested it. He has a partnership with our True Elixir Pavilion."

"One of the conditions of this partnership was protecting your Chen Family for three months."

"What?" Chen Zhengqing was extremely shocked.

He had never expected that his adopted son had actually established ties with the True Elixir Pavilion.

It seemed to be a very important partnership. Otherwise, how could the normally neutral True Elixir Pavilion have possibly stepped forward?

However, Master Lei Yi did not explain any further details before leaving.

Chen Zhengqing also breathed a sigh of relief. The Chen Family had avoided a calamity that could have destroyed them.

But Lei Gang had not actually given up. The True Elixir Pavilion had only said that it would protect the Chen Family for three months.

Therefore, if he still could not catch Yang Lingtian, he planned to return three months later and settle accounts with the Chen Family.

Lei Gang then continued searching for Yang Lingtian.

After traveling for several days, Yang Lingtian arrived at a city called Qingyun City. He planned to settle down and rest there.

Lei Gang had searched for Yang Lingtian for so many days without finding him. He could only return to his family and begin mobilizing even more people to search.

He also issued a high bounty. Anyone who could provide information about Yang Lingtian would receive a generous reward.

It was not only the Lei Family that was searching. The other forces of Tianchen City were also secretly looking for him.

Chen Zhengqing was very worried about Yang Lingtian's safety and secretly sent people to search for him as well.

Even the people of the True Elixir Pavilion mobilized their various connections and informants to search.

After all, Master Lei Yi and Yang Lingtian had a secret agreement.

For a time, Yang Lingtian became the target of everyone.

However, several cities still lay between Qingyun City, where Yang Lingtian was now, and Tianchen City, making it relatively safe.

But he still did not dare let down his guard, remaining vigilant of his surroundings at all times.

The most important thing now was to obtain a new identity. And the easiest identity to obtain was that of a mercenary.

Thus, he went straight to the Mercenary Guild in the center of Qingyun City.

On the Shenwu Continent, nearly every country and every city had a Mercenary Guild.

However, the Mercenary Guild was a rather loose organization, essentially functioning as nothing more than an intermediary.

The Mercenary Guild was enormous, and mercenaries streamed in and out without end.

The mercenaries handling procedures inside had long since formed a long queue. This was the process one had to go through to become a mercenary.

Yang Lingtian found the window for registering mercenaries among the many counters and walked over.

To conceal his identity, he directly changed his name to Yang Xiangtian, preventing anyone from discovering him because he used his real name.

The process of registering as a mercenary was very simple. After paying some Spirit Stones and having his cultivation examined, he officially became a mercenary.

He also received his mercenary badge. However, with his current strength, he could only obtain the lowest-ranking mercenary badge.

In other words, a Bronze Badge.

Mercenaries lived and died by the blade, taking on dangerous work that meant licking blood from the edge of a knife.

Therefore, as long as a person's cultivation was acceptable, there were no other requirements for signing up as a mercenary.

After all, who could stop someone from throwing their life away?

Moreover, mercenaries were actually very free. They had no compulsory missions.

If they wanted to earn more rewards, they had to take the initiative and accept some missions.

Of course, they could also form a Mercenary Group themselves and accept missions under the name of a team.

Generally, those in the Qi Refining Stage could obtain a Bronze Badge and could only accept the lowest-level Yellow-grade missions.

What Yang Lingtian currently knew was that mercenary missions were divided into four levels according to difficulty: Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow.

Mercenary ranks, meanwhile, were divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond.

They were determined by the honor points accumulated from completed missions and the mercenary's own strength.

Thus, a very small number of people in the Qi Refining Stage could become Silver-rank mercenaries because they were powerful enough to complete many missions and accumulate a great deal of honor.

There were a great many Yellow-grade missions, most of them boring tasks of very low difficulty.

For example, helping someone find a lost item, delivering goods for a shop, or even watching someone's gate for a few days.

Yang Lingtian was not interested in any of these. He wanted missions that could temper him and make him stronger.

For now, however, the most important thing was to get farther away from Tianchen City. After all, Lei Gang's influence was immense.

His name carried weight in several nearby cities. Yang Lingtian had to flee even farther.

In the end, he found a merchant caravan that was about to make a long journey and joined them.

This was a mission to escort a merchant caravan. After all, all kinds of bandits could appear at any time on the Shenwu Continent.

Powerful demonic beasts might also appear, and even beast tides could emerge. That was why missions to escort merchant caravans existed.

The strongest person escorting this caravan was a Foundation Establishment Realm Silver-rank mercenary named Wang Yun. Nearly all the mercenaries present had to listen to him.

After Yang Lingtian left the city with the caravan, they passed through an endless plain.

Very few people lived in this area. Only a few merchant caravans traveled through it.

Yet places like this were the easiest for bandits and robbers to appear, so every merchant caravan had groups of mercenaries escorting it.

The plain was extremely vast. The caravan traveled for an entire day but still had not crossed it.

When darkness fell, the caravan stopped moving and set up camp in a relatively flat area.

Yang Lingtian chatted with the mercenaries while eating and learned many interesting things.

At night, Yang Lingtian sat cross-legged inside his tent and began circulating the Chaos Dao Divine Art to cultivate.

It was very quiet outside. Only faint footsteps occasionally sounded, belonging to mercenaries making their rounds.