Su Lie got up early in the morning, he had decided to be the first one to register as there would be a higher chance that he would run into Jiang Mei – that and the excitement didn't give him a peaceful night.
He quickly did his chores, bathed, cleaned his teeth and changed into fresh clothing. After that he tiptoed into his parents room, seeing his father and mother asleep he silently went to his wallet and took out some money from it.
They needed to pay to register into the guild.
Before he left the house he checked to make sure everyone was asleep, after all he wanted to finish the mission as quick as possible.
No one awake yet.
"Well, I just hope she came early." With those words he opened the door and left the house.
While he went to the guild he thought about what the mission would reward him, in his heart he prayed that the system would be benevolent enough to reward him with points if he performed exceptionally.
Or perhaps, he would be given a skill that was in the range of 2000 to assimilate, even if his body couldn't handle it yet it would still do some good to have something special when its time.
Or maybe it would give him an relic or a treasure! One that would give him an increase in stats.
Those thoughts fueled Su Lie to complete the mission as soon as possible so he sped up hoping to run into Jiang Mei.
He passed the lush scenery of grass and beautiful trees. Unlike cities that were trying to modernize everything the towns kept strictly to nature, that way there would be a higher number of cultivators they got every year which in turn increased the resources they would get.
The road one was expected to pass had no grass on it though, it was made that way so that people with bad senses of direction wouldn't get lost easily.
For a nature lover this was ideal, but for someone who wanted to do long-term cultivation a more peaceful mountain was advised.
Shrugging those thoughts aside Su Lie smiled at the marvel in front of him, the town's guild.
It was one of the only few building in the area that was painted, though the owner had decided the color black would be the fit for this building. It provided a sense of grandeur for people who had never seen the city and an ominous vibe to it.
It was made with steel, no other building materials. The steel was of good enough quality to withstand a few-grade 5 cultivator's fire attacks.
Su Lie entered the building, thankfully only a few people had come now. There was no doubt in a few hours the line would be from the guild to the capital.
Su Lie casually positioned himself at the back of the line keeping his eyes peeled for Jiang Mei, apparently she should have come by now. Even nobles couldn't break the rules the guild imposed, the only exceptions were the elders.
The line slowly diminished, another line was forming at the edge of the first floor.
"Hello sir, what can I do for you?" A young man wearing a green robe behind a counter said.
He was the receptionist and one of the most burdened people on this day.
"I came to register to become a member." With those words Su Lie took out his ID.
It was standard identification provided by the elders once someone turned 16, it only showed the face, date of birth and number.
Yeah, number.
The man took it and studied the information before handing it back to Su Lie, he proceeded to tear a piece of paper from a very worn-out booklet and handed it to Su Lie with a pen.
Su Lie began answering the questions, it asked him how long he planned to be in this town and if he had any affiliation with anyone.
He decided that the time he would spend in this town was limited, probably when he broke through the second rank he would leave.
He entered five years and claimed he didn't have any affiliations. He couldn't say he had a system, everyone had one.
After filling the form he handed it back to the man with most of the money he collected from his old man's wallet.
The man directed him towards the other line at the other edge of the room.
Su Lie sighed as he joined the back of the line again, it would take a really long time before he got to see Jiang Mei today.
He idly checked his stats while thinking about a lot of things, with the system he estimated how much time it would take him to leave the first 3 stages of mortal cultivation and finish his foundation establishment.
The foundation establishment was done passively while cultivating through the first three stages: body strengthening stage, body refining stage and the soul refining stage.
During the time they cultivated those three stages where the most important times of a cultivators life, it would determine their potential.
Per say, someone was stuck with their foundation establishment for more than forty years they would have a poor potential. But someone who finished his foundation establishment in 5 to 8 years would be a genius among geniuses.
That was why no one in the town would cultivate with the poor resources the town gave them, nobody wanted to have poor potential.
"Next." Another man's voice awoke Su Lie from his daydreaming.
This time the man's had a lighter shade of green.
"Do you wish to be a part of the guild?" The man asked, his tone with a hint of boredom.
"Yes."
"Do you swear that you will never betray neither this town or this guild?"
"Yes."
"Sign here." The man in light-green robe brought out a piece of paper and gestured for Su Lie to sign a part of it in which it said that if he broke the vows he had made his cultivation would be severely damaged.
Funny enough, this paper was long and had been used by several hundreds of people.
Su Lie read the terms and conditions thoroughly and going back to the part that he didn't understand well enough.
This seemed to irk the man but he didn't mind, after all, it wasn't him who asked the man to be the guy in charge of this job.
It was the guild master.
In the end he signed it, making sure to use the lightest shade of the pen to sign.
'System, do you have anything to say about this contract?'
[This is a mid-grade cheap binding contract, nothing important.]
Shrugging, Su Lie put the contract at the back of his mind and did what the man told him to do.
"Get into the line on the next floor."
'What do they have with lines.' Su Lie thought while heading to the next floor.
Going through the long staircase Su Lie grew annoyed as he saw the thing he dreaded the most, a very long line.
The room wasn't very different from the counterpart except for the lack of furniture.
The line was so long that he couldn't even see the people at the front of the line.
From what he understood from the setting of this place their strength would be tested to see if they were eligible enough to become a member.
'So what was the use of even signing that contract now.' Su Lie wondered.
He didn't think too long about it, after all he wasn't going to be sent back so there was no use pondering on it.
His interest was in the event he was watching, people were testing their combat power and their speed.
A notice hung over his head and he only seemed to notice it now.
Required punching power: 400 kg
Required speed: 30 m/s
The requirement was much, demanding this from someone that hadn't even started cultivating was like putting a gun in front of someone's head and telling them to dodge 0.011 seconds before shooting.
Only those who had a reaction time of 0.005 seconds would be able to tilt their head enough to dodge!
He watched as many people scored 430 to 450 and those who their punching strength was 400 on the dot, only a few times did people with punching power of 390 appear.
The test was to punch a large rock that would require the punching strength of 700 to break, each person would test one while a cultivator would use his eyes to determine the strength.
Something noticeable was the amount of cracks formed when someone of 400 punched was more than someone of 390 punched.
They hadn't started the sprinting yet and gathered everyone regardless of whether they had the punching requirement or not.
"Next up, Jiang Mei!" The cultivator said, his voice audible to those even in the back.