As the same routine continued, I headed to the mission hall and made my way up to the reward floor. I scanned the available items, hoping something eye-catching would catch my attention. To my surprise, a skill scroll that seemed perfectly suited for my body appeared. I asked for the price and was stunned by how reasonable it was — I only needed to work as a guard for ten more days. After that, I would be granted permission to hunt beasts in the wild near the clan.
I wouldn't even dare venture deep into the forest as a middle-rank 1 cultivator. The area was considered a Rank 2 forest, though a single Rank 3 monster was said to live there. That was why the Wen Clan wasn't particularly afraid of the dangers. The forest, which proved highly beneficial to them, was even affectionately called the Wen Forest. To outsiders, however, it posed a real threat.
I accepted the guard quest without hesitation. A little while later, I struck up a conversation with Jack while on duty.
"Do you know that the ending of that old man's fate was really thrilling?" I said. "I want to know if his granddaughter got raped by that girl or not."
"Yeah, I watched it too," Jack replied with a grin. "Many people did. It's interesting how that female villain is so skillful at making those girls go crazy for her on their own. It's a pity she's a mortal. Otherwise, we could've watched the legend of a demonic cultivator in the making."
"I know they're mortals, but where do they live? And what's that Gu thing about?" I asked.
Jack leaned against the wall, eyes scanning the horizon as he answered, "Mortals who live in the Fate Region without any interference from cultivators make for the best interesting events. The Gu worms were introduced by a cultivator who later became the Gu Master Demonic Raja. He reached the 9th rank and was rumored to be one of the few Rajas who came close to cultivating eternal life, but he ultimately failed. No one knows exactly which era he belonged to, but the region he ruled was the Fate Region.
After he passed away, many people spread across the world to destroy all the Gu worms because they produce Rank 1 Hope Gu, which helps mortals become cultivators. We wanted to reduce the consumption of resources in the world. However, they left behind Rank 1 Recording Gu because Heaven will not allow any race to become extinct. These Recording Gu help us broadcast videos and record evidence.
The ironic thing is that Heaven itself was the one that guided humans toward Gu in the first place. The reason behind its actions is unpredictable. A mortal with a special bloodline once sacrificed his entire family using an Expenditure Gu to separate them from the cultivation world. The children who were about to become cultivators were kicked out of the Fate Region. In a sense, you could call them orphans."
I replied with a simple "Ohh," because it was exactly the kind of casual topic we had decided to talk about. After that, we continued chatting as usual.
During my free time, I thought to myself, He tried to refine the Eternal Life Gu but failed in the end, though he left behind some clues toward eternal life. Cultivating Gu wasn't worth it in the long run for me, so I could only forget about the Eternal Gu and focus on reaching the 10th rank.
When evening came, we parted ways. I went straight to the training area to challenge a new person.
I issued the challenge daringly, taking a small step back to show determination mixed with the arrogance of someone seeking a single intense battle. The need to push myself was visible in my simple actions. Because I was younger than most of them, they couldn't overthink it.
A male cultivator stepped forward to accept my challenge. We went to the arena and swore an oath of fate for the battle, placing bets on each side so I could gain more experience.
The battle began. I used Shadow Jump right from the start, while he activated a light skill that acted like a flashbang. Our attacks countered each other and created a resonance of Yin and Yang, which completely nullified both techniques. We were left with nothing but primitive hand-to-hand combat.
The crowd, who had been cheering, grew even more excited. A null state wasn't rare, and even cultivators from the same clan openly appreciated such moments as they helped improve their martial skills.
Our sword-versus-dagger battle began. I had one dagger that I had recently gotten polished.
I went straight for his vital points. He deflected my strike with his sword — an unspoken rule at the start of battles to fight righteously and build momentum equally on both sides. Though his move was hard to follow with the naked eye, my experience helped me.
In that split second, I performed the magic trick I had perfected in my previous life — a sleight-of-hand technique honed in the underworld during high-stakes card games, street cons, and close-quarters assassinations where a single misdirection meant the difference between life and death. With a subtle twist of my wrist and a deceptive shift of my torso, my dagger seemed to vanish into thin air. The motion was so fluid, so natural, that it looked like pure illusion. One moment the blade was in my right hand, gleaming under the sunlight. The next, it had disappeared completely, as if swallowed by the wind itself.
When he let his guard down for that critical instant, I lifted my empty left hand and struck toward him as if it still held the sword. By the time he realized what had happened, his hand only held a fluttering handkerchief. He lifted the kerchief to check his sword, but it had vanished. The sword had reappeared cleanly in my hands, the blade now pressed lightly against his side.
In the end, I won the battle using my non-existent Rank 1 Swap skill. In truth, I had won fairly with my advanced martial arts and the deceptive sleight-of-hand techniques I had carried over from my previous life.