*Yawn*
Chang Guan's day started with a soft yawn. He was laying on his bed, unwilling to leave, as he looked out of the window to attempt to guess the time,
"9 o' clock? No, probably closer to 10."
He wasn't too sure about the time but, but couldn't be bothered to check the time. After roughly estimating the time, Chang Guan continued laying in his bed. Although he knew that he should leave it, it was as though the bed had grabbed him and forced him to continue laying on it. Knowing it was impossible for him to leave his bed, he began cultivating.
Ninjutsu was different from regular cultivation, in Orthodox Cultivation, the basic principle was absorbing Qi from the surroundings, compress it, and store it in your Dantian. In Ninjutsu, you needed to absorb the Qi from the surroundings and then make it rotate around your Dantian. Once there was enough, you would use a Breakthrough Mantra to upgrade its quality and change it's colour to the next stage. If you can't fully understand the Breakthrough Mantra or your Qi isn't rotating around your Dantian fast enough, then you can't reach the next level and you reach a bottleneck.
Cultivating in this way has pros and cons. The pros are that it's easier to circulate and release the Qi, the rotation of your Qi can form a vortex that automatically absorbs Qi, thus making Cultivation faster, and when releasing the Qi, it already has built up power that it can use to attack. The cons are, that since the Qi doesn't enter the Dantian it can't refine your body and longevity, which means a shorter life and weaker physical strength. This is also why NInjutsu has a lower limit than Cultivation, since, at a certain point your Dantian can't handle the pressure anymore, and you are stuck at that level.
Chang Guan's title of a genius came from his deep understanding of the rotation of Qi and the Breakthrough Mantra, but his gathering of Qi was only slightly above average. Currently, he was about 70% done with gathering the energy, which means it would still take a bit of time before he could break through to the Green Mask stage.
After 2 hours of cultivation, Chang Guan could feel the pressure building up on his Dantian and decided to stop. Ninjutsu needed plenty of breaks while cultivating. If you didn't take any breaks, your Dantian would get harmed and possibly even collapse on itself, killing you in the process.
Chang Guan got out of bed and decided to leave the Inn to head to the Adventurer Guild. He knew that it was always good to be there a bit before the allocated time just in case anything unexpected happens.
"Hmm?"
A surprised voice leaks out of his mouth. There were 2 men, one large and the other small, that were harassing a short girl. Chang Guan recognized her, it was the pickpocket from yesterday. To be completely honest, Chang Guan was quite surprised to see the situation. After all, the girl was an expert Pickpocket, so he would be very impressed if anyone were to notice her theft. The tall man began,
"Ain't she pretty, Aniki?"
"Hell yeah, you can be expecting a bonus for your work here."
"Hehehe..."
Although he was studying the situation, he didn't stop moving, and after overhearing the conversation between the two men, he finally understood the situation, `Ah, I see, they didn't notice her theft, they just thought she was pretty and decided to hit on her.´
The situation couldn't be described as anything but Karma. An amazing pickpocket ended up attracting some villains, not because they noticed that she was a pickpocket, but because they believed she looked pretty.
After understanding the situation, Chang Guan couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle.
Unfortunately, although the 2 men didn't notice that, the girl did. And as she did, her eyes flashed with a cunning light, and so she yelled,
"Hubby!"
And came running towards Chang Guan. Instantly, He understood what her intention was. She had noticed the sword on his waist and wanted him to fight the thugs for her.
Her plan worked brilliantly, as the 2 men turned around and stared at Chang Guan, their eyes filled with disdain. The short one said threateningly,
"Huuuhh? Who are you? You better leave the girl and turn around, otherwise, you'll get hurt."
While this was being said, the tall one pulled out a sword hanging from his waist. Not wanting to get involved, Chang Guan sigh and walked away. Who cares if they insulted and made fun of him. Even if was angry, as a Shinobi, his work was to persevere during the day and kill during the night.
Yet, the moment he turned his back, the tall one swung his sword towards Chang Guan. The moment the swing began, Chang Guan's eyes became cold, as he unsheathed his own sword and swung it towards the tall man. Even though Chang Guan was holding back most of this strength, the sword was still to fast for the tall man to block as it cut him cleanly in half.
Chang Guan's first slice was instantly followed by another directed towards the short man, who was still stunned by seeing the tall man's death and was also unable to defend. Despite having taken out his opponents, his sword swung a third time, this time cleanly slicing of the girl's right hand.
After dishing out his punishment, he sheathed his sword and began walking towards the Adventurer Guild.
Although he knew that this was what was necessary and all of his actions were done emotionlessly, in his heart he didn't want to hurt the girl. As a 14-year-old boy, of course, he was filled with feelings for the fairer sex, but he still dismembered her arm to warn her and temper his own feelings.
The girl was shocked and it took her a second before she understood what had happened. Then she screeched with agony and stared angrily at Chang Guan.
After having dealt with that distraction, he headed towards the Adventurer Guild while checking the time, only to realize that it was only 20 past 12 and that he still had plenty of time left until the time of departure.
He entered the guild and walked over to the clerk, handing over his license and stating
"I've arrived, where do I wait?"
After receiving the license, she said,
"Ah, Chang Guan, you'll be leaving in 1 hour and 20 minutes, please head over to the waiting room until the employer is here."