In the system space in the house, the Li family were listening attentively to Xiao Ling'er, she finally got the respect she deserved.
"The first step to become the greatest clan in the universe is to hold the fort, that mean taking control of this Blue River region. For that, using strength alone isn't enough, you need to conquer the people's hearts!"
"You are saying that, but with our current situation, not being hated would already be a huge challenge, I went in the street of the Blue Sky city to help a young lady that was annoyed by a guy, but he immediately knelt on the ground before I could do anything, he looked at me like some great devil." Li Yun gave a comment in order to clarify their situation.
"That's mostly because you are acting so arrogantly brother Li Yun. I wondered but why do you keep looking at people with the nostrils? Isn't your neck tired?"
Xiao Ling'er answered before asking curiously.
"Am I not just following the description on my panel? Even I won't look at people this way if I could, and you are right it's very tiring for my neck." He answered with helplessness, his neck was still sore even now.
"Huh? But… That description was just a guideline about your identity, you don't need to follow it by the letter you know."
Xiao Ling'er hesitated for a bit before answering.
Huh?! So we didn't need to follow it, couldn't you have said that earlier!
"As you said, the reputation of the Li clan isn't very great in the region and the most effective way to arrange that is to talk some diplomacy to the local clan nearby first and us.. work with them to implement some improvement for the poulation " Xiao Ling'er said before pausing for a bit.
"So for your first mission, there is an elder of the Sun clan of the Yellow leaf city that took his retirement from the council of the Li corporation last year, he is suffering from an unknown illness and need treatment."
A new feed appeared on the panel of every family member.
[MISSION]:
In the first step to be the greatest Clan, it is necessary to earn the trust of people, but accomplishing that alone would be an impossible task so recruit some helper. The patriarch of the Sun clan is suffering from a disease. Help him to win them over and take a turn around in your reputation.
Mission object: A pill formula Spiritual rank [Great Yang rejuvenation]
Reward: depend on completion
As every one discussed what to do, they decided that this mission would be done in two parts. In the first, Li Kun the only alchemist needed to make a 'special' alchemy pill, the ingredients were not a problem but it would only be be done in the next few days and would surely drain him greatly. For the second part, someone will have to endorse the heavy responsibility to take contact with the Sun Clan and deliver it here. Father Li was unsuitable to go here, if the Saber God visited them so suddenly, the whole clan would surely think that it was a purge and it would blow up to a huge matter, the elder was an old man so it would be inadequate for mother Li and Li Ya to go here, which leave us with…
"Li Yun, you are the only one who can do this mission, we are counting on you!"
So that was how he as chosen to be the representative of the Li clan!
...…
Three days later, Li Yun was ready for his journey ahead, he was holding a box made of wood with runes on it, he bid farewell to his family while giving the firm promise to achieve the mission.
"Everyone, it's time for me to go! Don't worry, I will accomplish the task no matter what happen on the way."
"Take care!"
"We believe in you"
Under such a heart warming encouragement he went in the black car before him that sped away in a flash.
Li Kun who was looking sleep deprived couldn't help but sigh:
"Isn't the Yellow leaf city just half a day of travel from here, and you can always teleport in the system space….."
The other just waved their hands for a while before going back in the mansion.
....
Li Yun wasn't showing the exited look anymore in the backseat of the car, he was looking at the view outside thoughtfully, even though the car was speeding very fast he could see the passing background clearly with his spiritual sense.
He couldn't help but sigh:
"I was with everyone up until now so it didn't really register to me but, this is really another world." Isn't that too late though?
He was feeling a sense of carefreeness as he looked at the strange wonderfull sceneries. There were buildings raising to the sky that he could see to the side, but they didn't seems to follow any law of physics with how weird shaped they were; other cars were flying past him giving a sensation of surrealism for the huge metropolis .
As the car went further out of the city, The scene changed gradually, with the trees forming a forest and the land full of greenery it was giving a sensation of wilderness. From above, he could see children playing with each other on an empty space full of grass, but it was very different from what he was used to see; he saw a ten years old kid violently smash a huge trunk of tree on a ferocious boar several meters large and about ten meters long knocking it down, while the other cheered before drawing swords and spears to kill it and divide the meat, a little girl with the hair in two buns was running with a slice of meat several time her weight while smiling happily, such a peaceful scene made him a bit speechless…
As he looked absentminded, a voice cautiously echoed from the front seat:
"Young master Li Yun seems interested in the scene bellow, children are already begining their cultivation at this age and they need to take care of their own need for foods to grow independent, even though this is a peaceful era, it is still the cultivation world."
Li Yun turned to the owner of the voice, it was the attendant that was assigned to take care of him in this travel; his name was Liu Guan, he was a thin man and was about his brother's age. Head Steward Han vouched for him so he must be quite dependable.
Li Yun said in wonder:
"You seems well informed, were you also doing the same before?"
Liu Guan gave a small laugh before saying:
"As young master said, I was indeed doing the same when I was young, most children from common origins are like that, but I was lucky enough to be accepted in the Blue river school when I was fifteen."
"Blue river school?" Was there such a thing?
"Cough,cough, it's the school for young cultivators that her Excellency your mother created fifteen years ago. It is only because of it that many people managed to reach higher cultivation knowledges and resources without becoming a servant working for the great clans. There are even some successful one in some department that build their own business and made a name for themselves in the region." Liu Guan was a bit troubled, he heard that this young master was so arrogant he didn't bother looking at other people, but from what he could see he actually seemed easy to talk to; however it was indeed a mistake to judge too quickly, he may not be evil but to not even know his own mother's great undertaking despite living in the Blue Sky city, it was the epitome of conceitedness.
"You mean like my brother?" Look at that, he was comparing the small time heroes to the greatest genius of his generation, and what was that look? He was actually showing a really puzzled expression without any hint of mockery, it was even more hurtful….
"This… they aren't that popular….."
Liu Guan said a bit awkwardly with a forced smile.
Li Yun finally became aware of his mistake, his brother wasn't just a young man unlucky with the opposite sex anymore, he was a renowned genius in alchemy! He was feeling a bit embarrassed but the lesson he learned to be a great man said that you had to have thick skin sometimes, he then asked to divert the conversation:
"How about you? You are talented enough to graduate from the Blue river school, so why would you work for the Li clan?"
"For that…" he paused for a bit before continuing.
"Actually, it's to show my gratefulness for the opportunity that was given to me. It is the same for most servants in the mansion though. There is also the good treatment and salary, it's hard to find a superior like Head Steward Han, that is just and fair in his handling of everyone, he is very strict though."
Li Yun showed a strange look hearing all of that, look like they weren't as hated as he thought. He then ended the discussion here as they had reached the true wilderness, the car went into camouflage mode, it would be invisible for the low leveled magical beasts.
The scenery outside became monotonous so he decided to do some cultivation. It wasn't his first time cultivating, he had done so in the last three days but the outside wasn't a sure place like the system space was, so he still kept his vigilance.
Li Yun held a spiritual stone on his hand and began to draw the spiritual Qi from it, the flow of spiritual Qi entered his meridians which were already completely opened up during the Qi accumulation realm, the Qi then followed the Great Sun and Star Mantra's meridian path before reaching the dantian that formed when he reached the Mortal Transcendent realm, the Qi then began to transform into Starlight Qi before entering the dantian, this process seemed easy but it was only because he was special, the title of a genius only seen in a thousand years wasn't just for show, even more so he was born with the exceedingly rare Star affinity.
Liu Guan who saw his body beginning to show some starlight was sighing in his heart, no matter how conceited this guy was his talent was indeed worth bragging about.
The cultivation lasted several hours and by the time Li Yun woke up, it was already in the evening and the sun was about to set, illuminating the Yellow Leaf city that was already in sight with its last ray.
...
The car entered the city without anyone impeding their road. As it flew inside, Li Yun contemplated the scenery of the Yellow leaf city, it was very different from the Blue sky city, the buildings were uniformly built in ancient style giving the city a historical feeling, the people living in were wearing traditional clothes and went by their life in a slower pace. Seeing this, Li Yun decided to take a tour around to 'investigate' the territory, as the saying say 'know your opponent, know yourself and you will be ever victorious', it was for business only for business.
The car stoped on a roadside and he walked out wearing a white robe to blend in the surrounding, Liu Guan walked out of the car too wearing a blue servant attire with an umbrella which he opened above Li Yun's head, the car transformed in jade stick that he put away in his sleeves.
The duo walked around the city, they found themselves in a shopping area which was very lively as the night was about to come; a great variety of shops were open, there were some strange and exotic things sold there; Li Yun was particularly attracted by the shop of a vegetable seller who had some algae on his stall but their color were different, there were green, red and even blue ones. Liu Guan seeing the young master so interested began to ask the seller:
"Please mister, can you explain to us why those algae are like this?"
The seller was a middle aged man in his forty, he was very happy seeing the customer walk in and they seemed to be generous one from his trained sight, he answered in enthusiasm:
"Those algae are rare products coming from the Deep sea, this blue one especially, it can only be found in the depth where only the sea race can reach even a cultivator with the water affinity wouldn't be able to go here."
It was obvious that he was boasting, when he mean cultivator, he was talking about the low leveled one that can't even use their spiritual Qi properly, but they didn't say anything about that as Liu Guan asked:
"So, how much is the price then?"
"It will be ten first rank spirit stone a bundle for the red and green one, the Blue are a bit pricier at fifteen." The guy wasn't dumb, it was better to give the true price in this circumstance, rich people doesn't care about how much they buy but they care very much about face, getting cheated would be an insult to their intelligence.
As expected, his customer seemed to be convinced by the price as the young master directly said:
"Thirty bundles of each then!"
Such a windfall! His grandmother was right, it was indeed better to do an honest business.
The man then prepared everything in a swift manner, as his grandmother said, time was money. He then gave the boxes to the servant wearing blue cloths, this one directly gave twelve spirit stones of the third rank which were worth a thousand two hundred first rank spirit stones before saying:
"You can keep the change."
"Dear customer, thank you for your patronage." He answered, he was about to bid them farewell when a muscled bearded man with a knife scar on his forehead approached his shop with great momentum.
Li Yun was immediately interested, was this the so called protection fee collector? It's always reasonable to have one or two right?
But the seller didn't show any wariness or fear, he just bid his farewell to them before welcoming the bearded man, they then talked about the new shipment of cucumber making Li Yun feel that he was cheated. It's indeed wrong to judge a book by it's cover...
He then left with Liu Guan to see the other shops in the market.