Most of the formations around Maxwell's house had been destroyed by the assassin, leaving it very vulnerable against attacks. Since the moon was still high in the sky, Maxwell went back to sleep with the few formations around him remaining.
Maxwell got up with a large yawn and quickly brought out the materials to set up stronger formations. He got out various pieces of ore and Spirit Stones. He set up the formations one by one and activated them. The formations were all Rank 5 of different grades. The main purpose of the formations was to defend against intruders. There were also some that allowed Maxwell to store memories of whatever had occurred in his residence if it was breached by an intruder. The view from the formation would be stored in a crystal ball, like the one he used in his mission a while ago.
It took a while to make all the formations and they used very little of Maxwell's qi since they were powered by a Qi Gathering Formation and Earth Spirit Stones.
By the time everything was set up, the bright sun was already high up in the sky. It was the peak of summer, so it was very hot and very few people were currently outdoors.
'I need to choose a servant to take care of the house when I'm gone.'
Maxwell referred to his map of the sect and found the servant quarters where he could get a servant. It wasn't too far away, but in the sweltering heat it felt much longer than it actually took. The servant quarters were large and well kept. As soon as a servant saw him, they went to call the Manager of the Servants, after all Maxwell was clad in the uniform of a Core Disciple.
A woman with glasses walked out gracefully to greet Maxwell.
"Welcome to the servant quarters sir. Are you in need of a servant?"
"Yes, show me the most capable servants available."
"Of course, sir, follow me inside."
Maxwell was led into a reception area. He sat on a chair with comfortable and soft cushions.
"Sir, please wait 5 minutes, I will assemble them."
Soon, 5 neatly dressed servants were standing in front of Maxwell, dressed in the sects servant attire. For the single male servant, it was a black pant and a white shirt, nearly akin to that of a butler and for the rest of the servants that were female it was a white shirt and a long black skirt that nearly reached their foot.
"I'll hire him, he has the highest cultivation after all."
The rest were dismissed, and they returned to their duties, slightly disappointed as they could have gotten a large increase in their salary and becoming the personal servant of a core disciple meant an opportunity to cultivate much further.
"What's your name?"
"It's Sam, sir."
"Okay Sam, follow me. I'll tell you about your work on the way."
Maxwell told Sam that he would only have to take care of the house and occasionally have to cook. Other than that, he was free to cultivate when Maxwell was gone. He would also get a stable salary of 100 Earth Spirit Stones per month, which was a very large amount for Sam. Most of this would go into cultivation.
Sam was very grateful for the excellent conditions and salary. He wasn't expecting to be treated remotely as well just for taking care of a house. Maxwell showed him the various rooms in the house and even let him choose one of the empty rooms that were there.
He was also allowed to use one of 2 cultivation rooms with a Qi Gathering Formation. The treatment he was getting was unprecedented in his views. He had never heard of a servant being allowed to use such a valuable formation and drain the qi stored in the room.
After thanking Maxwell profusely for the job and the treatment, he went to clean everything. He was very meticulous and made sure to clean every nook and cranny. Not even a speck of dust would remain while he worked there. After he was done, everything was glistening.
Maxwell was amazed at his performance and asked him to prepare a meal. In 30 minutes, he prepared 7 dishes with a variety of ingredients and flavors.
"Woah, they all look and smell good."
Maxwell tried the first dish, a curry containing the meat of a bird Spiritual Beast. The gravy was extremely creamy and thick. It was quite spicy, and it packed a lot of flavors.
"Delicious."
'It may not be better than the food of a few people, but its excellent to have every day.'
"Sam, I'm going to find a mission, watch out for assassins."
Maxwell walked through the town in the sect towards the mission hall. On the way there, he saw some Outer Disciples harassing an ordinary person who was probably a clerk in a store. They were trying to intimidate her into following them and they surrounded her.
On seeing Maxwell, she turned to face him, her eyes pleading for his help.
"Please! Help me!"
She tried throwing herself at Maxwell to make him interfere. To everyone's surprise, he moved out of her path, and she landed on the ground on her face.
"Tch, what a coward." She muttered angrily while dusting off her clothes and rubbing her bruised nose.
"If you want to fake getting harassed, you should try better. They don't even have any malicious intent directed at me when I came in their path. Hire real thugs instead."
Maxwell advised while walking ahead.
'That woman seems familiar, I'm not sure from where.'
At the mission hall there was a small crowd gathered. They parted on seeing Maxwell, and let him go through to the main source of the crowd. There was a group of 5 Core disciples looking for others to join their group.
"Who is that Core Disciple?"
"I haven't seen him ever, he's very handsome."
Whispers were spreading across the crowd that had parted and Maxwell received many intense gazes from girls admiring him. He also received looks of hatred from the boys that saw the girls getting drawn to him.
"Are you a new Core Disciple?" One of the 5 other core disciples asked him.
"Yes."
"So, you're the one in all those tall tales. You look different from what I heard." Said another.
"I grew a bit."
"Do you want to join us on a mission? It requires the strength of many Core Disciples. Even if your strength may not be on par, you can help us with space techniques."
"I'll consider it. I need more details."
They gave Maxwell the details of their excursion. They would have to head to a village in the sect's territory and subdue a mutated Spiritual Beast that was ravaging the farm and slaughtering villagers. The Spiritual Beast was a Giant Brown Rhinoceros. Giant Brown Rhinoceros' were always born with a good affinity for Earth qi and they had extremely tough hide. They lacked intelligence but they had high speed and deadly horns that could easily tear through a cultivator.
It was already a Peak Level 4 Spiritual Beast. Although most core disciples were at Soul Transformation Realm, it would take multiple of them to kill a beast with such terrifying defense.
The group was looking for 2 more members before they would head out to subdue the beast. If Maxwell agreed, they would only have to look for one more person.
After deliberating in his head, Maxwell accepted since it was a good opportunity to see both his and other Core Disciple's strength and battle prowess. They gave Maxwell a talisman so they could contact him once they found the final member.
They had planned to set out in 3 days after everyone was ready. Maxwell returned home and ordered Sam to prepare food for 3 months for him to store in his Spatial Ring. He gave Sam 2 days to do it. He gave Sam 1000 Earth Spirit Stones to buy all the ingredients and the rest would be his once he was done.
Sam at once rushed off to prepare the ingredients. Maxwell also left to get healing pills and to go to his master. He first went to his master to inform him. His master let him go only after 2 hours of sparring. He also drilled some strategies into Maxwell to defeat the Rhinoceros in case he got into a pinch.
"If you sense something wrong about the Rhinoceros' strength and behavior, you should flee. It will mean that you're all in extreme danger."
"What do you mean?"
"If it happens, you will realize. If it doesn't happen, then ignore my words. This is just a warning, I'm not discouraging you from going. Don't depend on your protector to fight any battles against Spiritual Beasts. He's only there to stop assassins."
"Okay, got it master. There's no need to be so tensed."
"I'm not tense, there's bad times coming."