The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Since they'd sold all their goods, Isaac and Johan said their goodbyes and split up. They both had their own things to buy, so they both headed to different parts of the market.

Isaac's first stop was the area for mundane, non-cultivation objects. He bought food, a hunting knife made from bone, and a large metal water bottle. Metal ores were very rare in Northern Tundra and had to be imported from Eastern Mountains, making this bottle a little expensive. However, he bought it anyway since snow eating snow couldn't keep eating snow when on missions. It could be contaminated and would lower body temperature when consumed, hence the need for an actual water bottle.

Other than the bottle which cost several iron pieces, Isaac's other purchases were very cheap. He brought them all back to his house and then returned to the market to continue shopping with his remaining coins.

His next purchases were 4 potted plants and a simple charcoal drawing in a wooden frame, which he would decorate his room with. He had to make 2 more trips to take all this back to his house and it was already dark when he got back to the market.

In fact, he hadn't travelled straight to the market. He'd dropped by the mission board to pick a quest, then visited the Adventurers' Hall to apply for it. Unfortunately, he could only accept 1 mission at a time, otherwise he would've taken more.

At his stage, it was impossible to have enough reward points. In fact, he already knew how he'd spend the precious 3 he already had.

He headed straight to the sect's official exchange centre. This was a store run by the sect, not an entrepreneuring individual. Its goods were always reliable and it exchanged a wide variety of common cultivation tools for reward points.

Isaac went straight to the long line to his left and waited to exchange for Basic Qi Pills. This pill was so popular that the desk Isaac was queuing for was dedicated to selling only Basic Qi Pills. They were essentially the fundamental pill of cultivation: easy to refine, easy to absorb, and providing a significant boost in cultivation speed. Outside the sect, where reward points were worth nothing, Basic Qi Pills were the primary form of currency.

When Isaac reached the desk, he handed over his 3 wooden tokens and did a simple trade, 3 reward points for 3 Basic Qi Pills. The person at the desk quickly checked the Qi signature on the reward points to verify they weren't fake, then handed over 3 small, white pills.

Isaac pocketed them and hastily returned to his house. He wasn't in a rush to cultivate, just to get home without being robbed.

When he got back, he organised all his food in his cupboards and found spots for the plants and the charcoal drawing. Then, he put the 3 pills underneath his pillow and began cultivating normally. There were only a couple of hours left in the day, so he didn't want to take a pill now and not have enough time to fully cultivate it.

After cultivating for 2 hours with a short break for swordplay in-between, Isaac went to bed.

In the morning, he washed but didn't eat breakfast. He was going to spend all of today cultivating without rest, trying to absorb the entirety of the 1st Basic Qi Pill. He took a pill from under his pillow and looked at it. The pill was small and milky white, like a marble. It had a cloudy surface with different shades of white and actually looked quite appetizing.

Isaac had no reservations about eating it, so he popped it into his mouth. It was a little difficult to swallow since he couldn't chew it, but he managed to wash it down with some water. The pill was completely tasteless, but Isaac could sense the Qi within it moving down his throat.

He used his will to follow the path of the pill down into his stomach. He hadn't eaten breakfast, so the pill was the only thing in his stomach and it was easy to sense. Isaac honed in on the pill and felt it emitting some of its bountiful Qi as it was being digested.

He quickly captured these strands of Qi with his will, drawing them towards his stomach meridian point. Then he brought the Qi through his Qi veins and into his Qi Core. Since his core was also in his stomach, the Qi didn't need to travel far before it reached his core and Isaac performed the action quickly. Then he brought his will back over to the pill to harness more of its Qi.

Unfortunately, some of the pill's Qi was dissipating and returning to the atmosphere. However, Isaac was absorbing the large majority of its energy. His cultivation speed was noticeably faster than when he cultivated normally, and he continued to strengthen his core.

Isaac focused as intensely as possible through the next 6 hours of cultivation. Only after the pill was fully broken down and passed out of his stomach did Isaac let out a breath of turbid air.

He was utterly exhausted from trying to concentrate for so long. He wolfed down a huge lunch and tried to recover in preparation to continue meditating.

He had already enjoyed the most beneficial period of the pill. It had released most of its Qi while being broken down in his stomach, allowing him to cultivate roughly 3x faster than normal. However, it would continue to release Qi throughout the 24 hour digestion process, just that the amount would drop significantly from now onwards.

Since Isaac always sought to maximise his gains, he wanted to cultivate for as long as possible and absorb most of the pill.

Therefore, he lay on his bed with closed eyes and began meditating again.

For several hours, he continued to draw Qi from the remnants of the pill, until he finally felt he'd reached his limit. He'd snapped out of meditation multiple times already and simply re-entered and continued. However, it was becoming more frequent and had happened 4 times in the last minute.

He knew that his concentration was utterly expended, and that he might damage his will and mind if he forcefully continued. Furthermore, the pill was only providing a 1.2 or 1.3x multiplier for his cultivation speed right now. It simply wasn't worth it.

Nevertheless, he was satisfied with his progress. Just this one day of cultivation was worth more than two spent cultivating normally. Since it was late, he ate again and went to see if yesterday's mission application was successful.

When he got to the Adventurers' Hall, he discovered that it was. The mission was to help remap an area of the forest and confirm whether a pack of wolves had moved there. However, its reward was only 1 reward point and 2 merit points.

As you could see from how Isaac used them, reward points could be exchanged for goods and services. In comparison, merit points weren't a form of currency but a number which represented your contribution to the sect.

Several rare goods sold by the sect were only for purchase to with a certain number of merit points. This requirement was also present for those who wished to enter special cultivation grounds or get a good position or job. It was the sect's way of saying 'It is not enough to be wealthy; you also need to be loyal and useful to the sect.'

As for why this mission had much fewer rewards than the last one... it was a mission for 1 person instead of 5. Isaac didn't mind the lower rewards too much, since they would just be side earnings anyway.

Newly furnished with good news about the mission, Isaac returned home to sleep. He had 7 days to complete it so he wasn't in a hurry. In fact, he completely ignored the mission for the next 2 days and cultivated with the remaining Basic Qi Pills.

After that, he spent half a day catching up on sword practice before he finally, finally decided to leave the sect.