Chapter 50 Learning and Improvement

The wind in the wilderness carried gravel, stinging the face.

For three consecutive days, Squad Yi-34 had been moving across this vast expanse of land. The path beneath their feet had gradually changed from the initial rugged rocks to a wasteland covered in withered moss.

The team members' windbreakers were stained with dust, and their eyes showed traces of fatigue, yet everyone's spirits remained high, especially when they looked at Yun Bai.

Captain Zeng Fu walked at the very front of the team. A trace of blood seeped through the bandage on his right arm, the handiwork of a Steel-Backed Wolf from yesterday.

Although he was trekking while injured, he was brimming with ambition at this moment.

Over these three days, he had poured out all his knowledge, teaching Yun Bai everything he could think of—from tracking the traces of demonic beasts and identifying edible wild plants, to setting up simple alert Formations and breathing techniques for critical moments. What stunned him, however, was that Yun Bai was like a sponge; not only did he absorb everything, but he could also come up with new tricks whenever he applied them.

Take yesterday evening, when they were resting; he had taught Yun Bai how to use the terrain in a dense forest to carry out stealth assassinations during his spare time.

He had only demonstrated it twice, but Yun Bai was able to use the shadow of a crooked tree to silently circle behind Fu Lianchuan, who was acting as the simulated target. The short blade in his hand slid past Fu Lianchuan's neck. The movement was clean and efficient, barely even stirring the wind.

Fu Lianchuan had not been on guard at the time and was so startled he nearly jumped. Captain Zeng Fu secretly sighed to himself, thinking that this child was simply born for the profession of a warrior.

Captain Zeng Fu had completely begun training Yun Bai as the future pillar of the team. Even if that hadn't been his original intention—because he knew the State Religion's cultivation plans for Geniuses—a Genius like Yun Bai must have signed a special contract and would enter the Holy City for further study in the future. Their team would ultimately be unable to keep Yun Bai.

However, a team member like Yun Bai, who was capable, humble, and willing to contribute, was simply too likable.

Over these three days, Yun Bai could perform brilliantly with almost every skill and technique the moment he tried them. If they hadn't known that Yun Bai was only 18, they would certainly have suspected that he had learned them before.

"Damn, you kid, aren't you the reincarnation of some old monster?" When Fu Lianchuan saw Yun Bai switching weapons with fluid ease and then taking down several demonic beasts, he couldn't help but curse the unfairness of the world.

Fu Lianchuan had just turned 35 this year, which was considered very young among Cultivators.

His cultivation had reached the Late Stage of the First Realm, and he was a member of Squad Yi-34 of the Xinyue Hall. He considered himself a rare Genius, yet the State Religion wouldn't even sign a Yellow-grade contract with him.

It was evident that Geniuses were gathered in the State Religion.

He didn't know what grade Yun Bai had signed, but it certainly wasn't low. What he found hard to accept was that the gap between Geniuses could be so vast.

Yun Bai wiped the stains off his face and smiled shyly: "Brother Fu, you flatter me; it's just good luck."

"Luck?" Du San rolled his eyes, took a few steps forward, and patted Yun Bai on the shoulder. "You kid switch weapons faster than I pull the trigger. You call this luck? I think you're hiding your true abilities!"

"Exactly." Fu Lianchuan curled his lip.

It was rare for Fu Lianchuan and Du San to be on the same side, all because of Yun Bai's terrifying performance over the past few days.

Now, Yun Bai had practically become the team's favorite.

In just over three days, Yun Bai had become the team's flex position.

Charging, guarding the rear, providing cover, assassination, support, coordinating from the center—Yun Bai could handle all sorts of roles.

Du San said: "You kid, answer me honestly: what exactly is your cultivation level now?"

Yun Bai spread his hands helplessly: "Old Du, I really am still at the Middle Stage of the First Realm."

Du San laughed and scolded: "Still keeping things from me, huh? 'Still, at, the, Middle, Stage, of, the, First, Realm'—you mean you're about to Breakthrough to the Late Stage, right?"

Yun Bai couldn't win against Du San, so he had to go along with it: "Perhaps."

"Hahahaha." Captain Zeng Fu laughed heartily. "Old Du, Yun Bai is, after all, a Talent specially cared for by Supervisor Zhou; he's definitely different from us. Besides, the Dao Sect's Cultivation Technique really is fast to Cultivate in the early stages!"

"That's true." Du San clicked his tongue. "Back in my day, I broke through from the early stage of the First Realm to the Late Stage with unstoppable momentum, taking only two years in total, and I thought I could become a Formation Grandmaster famous in the region. Who would have thought that at over fifty, I'm still grinding away in these desolate mountains and wild ridges!"

"Oh, give it a rest, Old Du San, stop showing off." Fu Lianchuan didn't look like a talkative person, but whenever he encountered the big-mouthed Du San, he couldn't help but retort. "If you were really such a Genius, would you still be—"

"Lianchuan! Stop, stop." Seeing that someone was about to bring up those old stories again, Captain Zeng Fu immediately interrupted.

The team immediately fell silent.

Seeing that the team had quieted down, Captain Zeng Fu continued: "We'll arrive at the supply camp soon. We'll take a short break and hand in the prey from these past three days."

The supply camp in the mountains was much simpler than Yun Bai had imagined. A few grey-brown tents were built around a Spirit Spring. The tents were patched with various colors, and their edges were frayed by the mountain winds. In the center of the camp stood a flagpole, from which a faded blue flag hung, bearing the large characters "Supply Point No. 7, Type Bing."

The attendant behind the counter saw Captain Zeng Fu and gave a rare smile: "Squad Yi-34? How was the harvest?"

Captain Zeng Fu untied a bulging Storage Pouch from his waist and poured out twenty-three demonic cores of varying sizes. These crystals rolled on the wooden platform, making crisp clinking sounds.

"Twenty-three First Realm ones, and the Materials are all here." Captain Zeng Fu said.

Yun Bai looked at Captain Zeng Fu's back, suddenly recalling his life in his past life on the "universe shuttle" spaceship.

His nose stung.

Yun Bai commanded in his mind: "Xiao Liu, pull up the spaceship logs, the part about the Captain."

Memories like a holographic image appeared in his mind: Captain Zhang Qiming of the "universe shuttle" was standing in the spaceship's main control room, checking the flight chart. He was always meticulous, buttoning his uniform up to the very top button, his grey-white temples trimmed neatly.

"Yun Bai, remember, there is no individual heroism in space." Zhang Qiming's voice seemed to still be in his ears. "We are a team, sharing life and death."

...

"What are you spacing out for?" The attentive Li Ying tugged at Yun Bai's sleeve, pulling him back from his memories to reality. "Let's go, if we go late, there won't be any space in the healing pool."

"Oh, oh, alright, Sister Ying." Yun Bai said.

The healing pools were three pools roughly built with mountain stones, filled with a pale green liquid that emitted a faint medicinal fragrance. Four or five Cultivators were already soaking in them, most with their eyes closed, adjusting their Qi.

The team members were all comrades who had shared life and death, so they didn't avoid each other and directly occupied an empty pool.

Yun Bai took off his damaged outer robe, revealing the scars left from fighting demonic beasts over these three days. Some of the demonic beasts were poisonous, and the poison hadn't been completely cleared yet.

Suddenly, he heard a strange yelp from Du San behind him: "Damn it! Did they mix chili powder into this pool water?"

Amidst everyone's laughter, Captain Zeng Fu walked over carrying a bulging leather bag and sent a message via Divine Sense: "The twenty-three demonic beasts were exchanged for 160,000 Spirit Stones. We'll split them according to the old rules."

The State Religion's asking price was already very fair. Even so, the value of the twenty-three Innate First Realm demonic beasts hunted over these three days was just over 160,000 Spirit Stones, averaging about 7,000 Spirit Stones per Innate First Realm demonic beast.

In fact, considering that a normal three-person family's annual expenses for food and clothing were no more than 10,000 Spirit Stones, the value of such demonic beasts was already very expensive.

There were five people in the team. Captain Zeng Fu proposed that everyone split the money equally, and no one had any objections—this was the depth of the camaraderie in their team; they would never get red-faced over such matters. If anyone was in urgent need of money, the others would proactively give up their share.

For example, everyone shared the cost of Du San's Formation consumption. The Xinyue Hall of the State Religion did not reimburse this part, only providing a small subsidy, which was simply not enough. The Xinyue Hall only was responsible for maintaining and replenishing supplies for standard equipment such as blades, swords, guns, crossbows, cannons, Medicinal Pills, and Talismans.

So, these 23 demonic beasts, worth 160,000 Spirit Stones, ended up with everyone getting 32,000 Spirit Stones each.

So, after deducting necessary expenses, each person earned 30,000 Spirit Stones in these three days.

Yun Bai clicked his tongue.

Yun Bai realized for the first time the difficulty of earning money, because he needed to gather 1.08 million Spirit Stones within 3 months. Up to now, he had 190,000 in his hands, still short by 890,000 Spirit Stones.

In fact, this rate of earning money was already very impressive.

This Cang Plains cleaning mission was one where it was relatively easy to make money. According to Du San, "If every day was spent executing missions like this, with no danger and where the hunted demonic beasts didn't all have to be confiscated, I would be able to laugh out loud while sitting in meditation to Cultivate."

But for Yun Bai, this was still not enough.