Shen woke up the next day and felt empowered by the sensation of reaching the first level of the ascending realm. He decided that he would try to get some contribution points to buy some well needed resources and decided that he would go on his first task today. As Shen steeled his mind to take on his first task he noticed that Ren was also walking towards the Tasks board.
"Hey Ren are you gonna take a task?" Shen said as he walked next to her "Yeah I decided that I should start doing tasks today since I need the contribution points" she said in a matter of fact tone "I also need contribution points now" "We could try and work together for this first task" said Ren with a smile "Thanks but I want to test my own strength for now" responded Shen in an apologetic tone
"I understand" said Ren.
The pair continued to walk towards the Tasks board together and other disciples looked towards Shen with a jealousy. As the pair arrived at the Tasks board they looked over the Tasks for 1st level ascending realm disciples and were caught off guard when they saw that all the Tasks for the 1st level ascending realms were only available to complete in pairs but that was due to their lack of strength when compared to the yuan Beasts outside the walls so it was decided that those of the first level couldn't go alone. "Looks like your stuck with me for now" Said Ren in a joking manner to which Shen laughed and shook his head "Alright let's pick a task already" He said and so they did.
The task they chose was one of collecting 100 "Lighting cloud berries" as the two walked through the woods outside the clan they saw many small yuan Beasts that were also at the 1st ascending realm. As they reached the first bushel of berries Ren reached out to pick a few of the lightning cloud berries and before she could start picking them the pair heard a hissing sound.
Ren retracted her hand quickly from the bushel of berries. "That's not very good" said Ren as she backed away from the bushel "I'm gonna try something that might be a very bad idea" said Shen as he reached out to pick berries relying on his body cultivation to keep him safe from the jaws of the snake. He reached out for the berries and the Hissing started again until finally the Hissing stopped and instead the sound of snapping jaws was heard as the snake lunged to dig its fangs into Shen's forearms. However it's fangs did little to his flesh so whilst it was hanging off of his forearm and thrashing around Shen used his other hand to crush its skull and tore it off of his forearm.
"well gonna be honest I'm very glad that worked out" said Shen in a relieved tone "Shen was that seriously your plan? To just reach out and ignore that it was hissing at you?" "well... When it's worded like that it just sounds stupid" he replied "THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS!!!" shouted Ren scaring the small game nearby "calm down Ren it seems to me that it's the only way were going to get this task done so I plan on doing that for the other bushels that have snakes on them and besides their scales are a good resource for me since I'm a body cultivator" Shen tried to negotiate "Fine but if you get hurt don't expect me to worry" she told him "If I get hurt by my own stupidity I don't expect you to feel bad for me" Shen said seriously at which Ren only shook her head and held her silence.
The pair continued to pick the berries from a few dozen more bushes 5 of which had "Shock Fanged snakes" hidden within their branches all of which faced the same fate as the first. By the time the pair returned to the clan they had collected twice the amount asked of them by the task so they were each given the reward of 100 contribution points which originally would have been the total that they would have had to split 50/50 as such they both felt proud of their work and on top of that Shen had collected the scales of 6 "Shock Fanged Snakes" from 4 of them he collected 20 scales the other two he went to try to sell at the pavilions he learned then that the snakes scales were actually it's least sought after resource. The most useful part of it was its venom sack which was almost always brimming with lightning yuan energy so Shen sold 2 of them for an additional 50 contribution points each bringing his total to 200 and then he saved the other 4 that he had yet to throw away. He walked back to his dorm to rest and tomorrow he would cultivate using his first resources.