Yuansheng Sect Cultivators

Before dawn, when a thin mist still hung in the air, Chen Lu went out and headed to the place where the caravan was to meet.

For more than ten days after purchasing the Spirit-Guiding Crossbow, Chen Lu diligently practiced its usage after refining it, ensuring that there would be no mistakes during its use.

He has been very careful when using it these past few days, fearing that the situations the shopkeeper mentioned might occur.

Fortunately, the spirit-summoning crossbow proved accurate as the divination indicated. Even after intensive use, it remained intact without any signs of wear or tear.

In the past ten days or so, he consulted the divination every day about good or bad fortune, opportunities, and so on, and received quite a few small favors in return.

For example, which street, at what time, a cultivator would throw away spirit stones.

He witnessed a vendor ripping off a cultivator and stopped him in time. Feeling grateful, he completed a business deal with the vendor's escort agency after learning the vendor's identity as a bodyguard.

Or, in the middle of the night, a mouse might sneak into the rice jar and steal the sacred rice.

In a duel with the head镖师 (bodyguard/escort), he was knocked down by the opponent in one careless move, and so on.

With these, he earned more than a dozen lower spirit coins. Although it wasn't as much as he earned from escorting goods, it was extremely stable.

Even though he lost his job at the escort agency, his life was still better than that of many Qi Refining cultivators.

The goods to be escorted are being moved, and the escort agency needs to check them one by one to prevent any shortages.

These miscellaneous tasks were naturally handled by the errand runners, while the bodyguards only needed to focus on escorting the goods.

This security escort agency was opened internally by the Wang family, initially primarily to facilitate the transport of their own goods.

However, as other families rose to prominence in the market, they took away a significant number of orders.

With declining internal efficiency, the security escort agency could no longer survive and had to take on external orders to maintain operations.

As for its members, most of them are members of the Wang family, or relatives from other families within two generations, like Chen Lu. If you count carefully, everyone is related to someone else.

"Aru!"

Not far away, a burly man with a nine-ringed broadsword strapped to his back ran over excitedly.

This person is named Zhao Dalong. He is also a metal-type cultivator, mainly cultivating the body. He is at the fourth level of Qi Refining and is the son of his maternal aunt. They have an extremely good relationship.

"Brother Da Long!"

Chen Lu also greeted him with a smile.

As soon as he approached, he sensed the somewhat restless spiritual energy emanating from him, and his face lit up with joy as he congratulated him:

"Congratulations, Brother Long, on your breakthrough! You've been stuck at the fourth level of Qi Refining for eight years, but you've finally broken through!"

Zhao Dalong couldn't contain his joy. He turned around and glanced at the busy镖伙 (bodyguards/escorts), feeling a surge of emotion and pride.

"After 10 years as a镖伙 (bodyguard/escort), I've finally been promoted to镖师 (bodyguard/escort master)."

"So, did the Wang family give you any rewards for becoming a bodyguard?"

Chen Lu asked curiously, explaining that when he was promoted to镖师 (bodyguard/escort), the Wang family gave him a lightness skill as a reward, which was considered to make up for his biggest weakness.

Zhao Dalong scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed:

"The ritual implement... I don't want it. I'm almost 40 now and still don't have a wife, so..."

Remembering his uncle's urging him to get married, Chen Lu chuckled and teased, "Which girl have you set your sights on? Let me give you some advice."

"What are you all doing gathered together! Keep an eye on the goods! What if someone switches them? Can you afford to pay for the spirit stones?"

The head镖师 (bodyguard/escort) walked over with a gloomy face and berated the two men for abandoning their posts. They were arm in arm, acting nothing like bodyguards.

Chen Lu didn't dare to speak. Although the Third Chief Escort was strict, he wouldn't get angry for no reason.

He glanced at Zhao Dalong, who was looking down like a frightened quail, and then at the Third Escort who was staring at him and cursing. He seemed to understand something instantly.

The Third Chief has a young daughter who just turned 20 this year. She has an earth-type spiritual root and is not yet married.

Zhao Dalong is almost 40, old enough to be an uncle, yet he's trying to woo a young girl. No wonder he's so angry.

The bodyguards who were listening nearby realized that something big was happening and hurried over, adding fuel to the fire.

"Da Long! Your vest is nice, hand-sewn, right? Tsk tsk tsk, I wonder which family's girl it belongs to, so kind-hearted."

"Oh, right! Third Chief Escort! Since Da Long is getting married, why don't you take us to Yi Fang Lou again? Otherwise, he might not have another chance to go!"

The third镖头's face grew increasingly dark. He suppressed his anger, trying his best not to let personal matters interfere with official business.

"This time, we are escorting a batch of top-grade Qingyun steel, as well as several carts of animal hides and spirit ink. These are all good goods that can be sold quickly. The same group of people from last time will definitely come again."

I told the family to hire two more clever and skilled men to fill the ranks, and to equip them with a few more bows or crossbows.

But the family business hasn't been doing well lately, so they told us to tough it out and wait until our spirit stone supply improves.

When it came to serious matters, all the bodyguards lost their joking mood and gathered together to discuss countermeasures.

"How about... we give them some spirit stones as a way to pass through? Those people are very skilled with their bows. If it weren't for the cargo boxes blocking our way, many more of us would have died."

The three镖头 (bodyguards) immediately rejected the proposal:

"I will never pay for a way out! Giving spirit stones is a sign of weakness! The weaker you are, the easier it is to be bullied!"

The other person continued, "I have a friend in the law enforcement department. I spent some spirit stones and searched through the bounty files."

Judging from their methods, they seem to be remnants of the Yuansheng Sect, which was breached a few years ago. I wonder how they ended up on our escort route.

The monk handed over an invoice recorded as a service fee.

"Um... Third Chief Escort, this information is very important. It cost me a lot of spirit stones. Could you... reimburse me?"

No one spoke; they just looked at him with some disdain.

Because his older brother is a cultivator in the Enforcement Department, he doesn't need to spend a single spirit fragment to review the files.

The third镖头 (head镖师) took it and read: "One hundred Xia Ling (下灵)."

"This money is well spent; a stable escort route is more valuable than anything else!"

Upon seeing this, the others' eyes lit up, and they took out their receipts and handed them over.

Ostensibly, these were spirit stones that the Wang family had to spend to protect this valuable escort route. Chen Lu also took the opportunity to hand over his invoice for two hundred spirit stones.

The three镖头s were not surprised; this kind of thing was perfectly normal. Everyone was risking their lives to make a living. If they didn't try to earn more spirit stones, what else could they do?

After he finished collecting them all, he continued:

"Brothers, we were able to get things done before, and the Wang family wouldn't pursue our little tricks."

But now, the Wang family has run into some problems, and many of their businesses have closed down, so reimbursement may not be as smooth as usual.

But I assure you, as long as everyone puts in their best effort, the blood shed and the sweat poured out will not be in vain.

It means that you need to have a sufficiently convincing reason to claim reimbursement in the future.

Otherwise, we can no longer simply submit a receipt for entertainment expenses and get reimbursed as before.

Everyone has had a feeling lately that the amount of cargo loaded each time is increasing, but the amount of spirit stones is not increasing at all.

Although many bodyguards have earned their reputation with their lives, if things continue like this, sooner or later more cultivators will set their sights on them.

There were even rumors within the Wang family that they would reduce vacation time, giving only 10 days per round trip in the future.

Many bodyguards naturally didn't believe it. In their view, having long-term leave was an industry practice for bodyguards, and no one would, and no one would, dare to, reduce their benefits in this regard.

Only in this way can the bodyguards ensure that they face each mission in the best mental state and have enough time to improve their skills.