Official Duties (Please Follow Along)

"So that's how it is. Most of the Snake-Person Race fear sunlight. Could it be that they operate at night..."

After Zhou Yun finished writing it down, he thoughtfully rubbed his chin.

It seemed that when he took patrol assignments in the future, he could simply choose ones during the day. That way, he wouldn't run into the Snake-Person Race.

A quick stroll outside could earn him several taels of silver when he returned. It couldn't get much easier than that!

"Once I've mastered this Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Technique, I can check the Job Posting Board."

Zhou Yun wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he planned to raise his strength as much as possible first.

He'd heard that the White Jade Ginseng King could continuously replenish one's qi and blood. It was an excellent treasure for practicing body-tempering techniques, and he couldn't afford to waste it.

He took the two items and headed to the courtyard.

Seeing Zhou Yun leave again, Bai Qingzhi had no choice but to lie down and go back to sleep.

For the Snake-Person Race, the best way to rest and recover was to do so in a cool place.

As long as they ate enough food beforehand, their bodies would gradually grow stronger. Then they only had to wait for the night of the full moon to break through naturally.

"This place is pretty similar to the cave I used to live in..."

Bai Qingzhi rubbed her face against the floorboards, yawned, and closed her eyes.

Since this human martial artist wasn't going to release her anytime soon, she might as well use this opportunity to quietly build up her strength and make other plans...

In the courtyard.

Zhou Yun opened the yellowed booklet. It recorded the method for mastering this kind of body-tempering martial art.

"Body tempering means putting the body through trials... in other words, taking a beating. You can also use a large amount of qi and blood to assist you. The results are just as good, if not better."

After reading the whole thing, Zhou Yun had a pretty good grasp of the technique. He took the White Jade Ginseng King out of the sandalwood box.

He swallowed the precious herb in three bites. A warm current gathered in his abdomen, then slowly flowed toward his limbs.

"The Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Technique uses qi and blood to temper the body and grant it Dragon-Elephant Strength."

Zhou Yun circulated the technique, using his fists and feet with varying degrees of force to temper his entire body.

The technique had six levels, but the first half of the booklet only recorded the first three. In that respect, it was similar to the Thunder Meteor Spear Art.

The first level hardened a person's skin and flesh to some degree and granted them the strength of one elephant.

The second and third levels consumed an enormous amount of qi and blood—so much that even Zhou Yun couldn't reach them yet.

It didn't take long for Zhou Yun to fully grasp the essence of the Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Technique. He could now temper his body at any time, wherever he was.

The technique itself wasn't difficult. The challenge lay in the tremendous amount of qi and blood it consumed. Otherwise, you had to get beaten often.

By around midday, Zhou Yun had fully absorbed the White Jade Ginseng King's medicinal power.

Along the way, he had put on the Phoenix Blood Jade Pendant Senior Brother Tian gave him. The Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Technique had officially entered its first level.

What's more, Zhou Yun had added some weight to his load. Last time he'd gone out without the Green Scale Soft Armor Shen Qingxue had given him. That had been far too careless.

If he was going to patrol the city from now on, he'd have to bring not only the Green Scale Soft Armor but also the Black Iron Great Spear.

Although Bai Qingzhi had explained that most of the Snake-Person Race feared sunlight, that didn't mean they couldn't move around under it. It only made them uncomfortable.

Besides, some Snake-People had especially pure bloodlines and weren't affected by sunlight... They weren't even particularly afraid of realgar. Bai Qingzhi herself was the best example.

Still, striking a Snake-Person's seven-inch point—the back of the neck—was effective. It was a fatal weakness for many Snake-People.

"Now I have three fine weapons and pieces of armor... and the Phoenix Blood Jade Pendant Senior Brother Tian gave me. I should be pretty well-off among Dark Force martial artists."

Zhou Yun thought it over. He just didn't know how much money it would take to settle down in the main city. At the very least, he'd need to buy a courtyard, right?

He could ask Senior Brother Chen about all that later. There was no need to worry too much for now.

With the Snake-Person Race causing trouble, Zhou Yun's determination to move his mother and Sister Ning Yue to the main city grew stronger.

He had almost decided to leave Black Stone County, this den of trouble, after the Three Halls Martial Tournament.

"At the Dark Force level, I'm already close to minor mastery."

Zhou Yun sensed his dantian. After entering the Dark Force stage, one could no longer gauge one's level by the thickness of one's force.

Instead, it depended on how much of the dantian the force enveloped. If it covered a thin layer, that meant one had just entered the Dark Force stage. Zhou Yun had been at that level before.

Now, his Dark Force enveloped his dantian in two layers. That was the effect of consuming a White Jade Ginseng King.

What's more, he could feel the force within his body increasing constantly.

It seemed to be because of the Phoenix Blood Jade Pendant around his neck, though the increase was tiny.

Once the force enveloped his dantian in three layers, he would reach minor mastery of the Dark Force stage. Seven layers meant major mastery, at which point he could try to condense Transformation Force.

"I still have one Qi Transformation Pill left, and I can feel that my dantian can withstand more than seven layers—at least eight..."

Zhou Yun sensed his dantian and realized it was the effect of the Qi Transformation Pill he'd taken last time.

With this other Qi Transformation Pill, perhaps he could reach the unprecedented ninth layer of Dark Force.

It was true that he rarely fought hard enough to exhaust his qi and blood, but there were always exceptions. It would be foolish not to develop his potential further.

"I can try taking on an assignment."

Zhou Yun regulated his breathing for a while, then headed for the Outer Courtyard's Martial Arts Arena.

When he arrived, he saw that quite a few disciples from both the inner and outer courtyards had already taken assignments. Most were patrols within the city; hardly any disciples wanted to leave the city to exterminate Snake-People.

They probably knew the great difference between human and Demon-Human physiques. Their advantages lay in the weapons they forged and their many powerful martial arts.

But some disciples came from poor families. Their monthly tuition fees were already a burden, let alone the cost of a good weapon or even a fine suit of armor.

"I won't pick anything too difficult to start with. I'll take a daytime patrol."

Zhou Yun looked over the options and chose an assignment to patrol with a squad of soldiers that afternoon. These assignments were plentiful and required a lot of martial artists.

But the nighttime patrols clearly needed even more martial artists, and the workload was heavier too.

If they hadn't happened to be short one Dark Force martial artist to oversee things that day, another disciple would have taken the assignment already.

"Only one tael of silver? It's practically a show-up fee... Much less than the reward for exterminating Snake-People."

Zhou Yun sighed to himself, but on second thought, it made sense. All he had to do was patrol the city.

If he didn't run into the Snake-Person Race, he'd just be wandering around. Paying one tael of silver was already a courtesy to him as a Dark Force martial artist.

If it were any less, they probably wouldn't find a martial artist willing to take the assignment.

"Taking one assignment counts as one human-rank contribution... and I can actually exchange it for Snake-People?"

As he selected an assignment, Zhou Yun also noticed the Exchange Board provided by the authorities.

Besides ordinary gold, silver, and pills, it even offered male and female Snake-People for exchange, along with a method for signing a Blood Pact.