, First Commission

Chapter 80 The First Commission

After absorbing the cursed matter, Ling Tianyu felt that the cursed nebula seemed to have grown stronger, taking another step closer to the second level of the intermediate stage!

Immersed in cultivation, the night passed by unnoticed...

"Hey, Ling Tianyu, I got a request this morning, come to Qingtian Hunting Grounds right away!" A clear, bright voice rang out, brimming with excitement, probably because she was happy to be able to skip class openly!

"Understood!" Ling Tianyu replied and immediately went out.

Passing by a bubble tea shop, Ling Tianyu thought for a moment and decided to get Lingling a strawberry milkshake and himself a bubble tea.

Pushing open the slightly rustic wooden door of the hunting lodge, Ling Tianyu stepped inside. Although Qingtian Hunting Lodge had a long-standing reputation, the starting price for commissions was 300,000, which deterred many people. When business was good, they could get several commissions a day, but when business was bad, it was common for them to not open for ten days or half a month.

From this perspective, Ling Tianyu is quite lucky.

Of course, their unit price is high, so opening one store can easily feed you for half a year.

Lingling sat on a small wooden chair, wearing the standard Mingzhu Elementary School uniform. Her two fair legs swung back and forth on the openwork of the chair. Her face was so tender that it seemed like it could drip water. Her features were delicate and lovely, and she was clearly a beauty in the making.

"Lingling, what's the request?" Ling Tianyu sat down next to Lingling as if they were old friends and handed her a strawberry milkshake.

"Strawberry milkshake? Do you think I'm a child?!" The delicate little nose wrinkled, and she took it with a hint of disdain. After all, why not drink it if it's free?

"Hmm, it tastes alright!" Lingling's eyes lit up, but she forced a reply in an attempt to maintain her aloof and mature image.

However, her habit of licking the milkshake residue off her lips from time to time revealed her true thoughts.

"Hmm, what are you holding in your hand...?" Lingling looked at Ling Tianyu, who was drinking heartily to the side.

"Bubble tea? Buy me that next time!" Lingling demanded.

"What kind of milk tea do kids drink? It'll make them fat and affect their development. They'll just grow up to be little bean sprouts!" Ling Tianyu threatened.

"Do you think I'm stupid!" Lingling pouted, then realized something and grinned, saying, "Didn't you just call me a bean sprout?!"

"Alright, tell me about the details of this commission!" Ling Tianyu, feeling bored, changed the subject.

"Oh, you almost led me astray." Lingling suddenly realized, rolled her eyes at Ling Tianyu, and her delicate little hands were working on the computer screen, making Ling Tianyu a little dizzy.

Aside from her magical abilities and physical prowess, Lingling has maxed out all her other attributes. Her computer skills, knowledge of demons and monsters, and even her mental resilience are outstanding, making her no less capable than the veteran hunter.

"Come and take a look at the contents of this request!" Lingling flipped the small notebook that was lying flat on her lap so that Ling Tianyu could see the request on the screen.

"Sea monsters are rampaging in Guangcheng Village, Shanghai?" Ling Tianyu asked in confusion. "What kind of place is this? I've never heard of it before!"

"Don't even mention you, an outsider. Even I, a local from Shanghai, didn't know this place existed. It's so remote!" Lingling turned her laptop back and started typing away, bringing up a map of the area around Shanghai and pointing to a small corner.

"There it is!"

"Where?" Ling Tianyu still couldn't see it.

"Here!" Lingling pointed to a spot with exasperation.

"I had thought it might be remote, but I didn't expect it to be this remote!" Ling Tianyu finally spotted three barely noticeable characters in a corner of the map.

"Well, this commission is rather special. Our Qingtian Hunting Agency's starting commission fee is 300,000, but this mission's commission fee is only 100,000."

"So how did you come up with the idea of ​​taking this commission?" Ling Tianyu asked with great interest.

Lingling shrugged and explained, "That place is too remote, and the commission fee isn't high. Those money-grubbing old hunters in Shanghai wouldn't take on such a commission! They don't have enough evidence of demonic activity, so the government isn't willing to allocate funds. This 100,000 yuan was raised by the entire village."

"Since this is your first mission, let's treat it as a simple practice run!" Lingling explained.

"Where's Old Man Bao? Wasn't he here yesterday?" Ling Tianyu looked around and asked in confusion.

"It seems they've gone abroad again, and Sister Leng Qing went to the Inquisition to investigate the Black Vatican, so I'm the only one minding the shop," Lingling explained, hanging up the wooden sign that read "Temporarily Closed."

"Let's go now!"

…………

Guangcheng Village is located in the southwest corner of Shanghai, bordering Jiaxing. As the name suggests, it is a small village mainly engaged in fishing, given that it was once plagued by sea monsters.

Ling Tianyu and Lingling first took the subway, then switched to a bus halfway through, and finally walked another two kilometers along a winding mountain road...

"Lingling, get on my back, I'll carry you!" Ling Tianyu said kindly when he saw that Lingling was a little exhausted. This distance would be difficult even for boys of the same age, and it was not easy for Lingling, a little girl, to have lasted so long.

Especially now, in the middle of summer mornings, the sun is blazing.

"Okay, thank you!" Lingling hesitated for a moment. From childhood to adulthood, only her father and sister had ever carried her on their backs.

But the pain in her ankle eventually made her give in, and she reluctantly climbed onto Ling Tianyu's back.

Lingling was initially disgusted by the man's sweaty smell, but after getting to know him, it seemed...not bad? There was a faint, fresh plant fragrance, unlike the pungent smell of perfume. Was it because it was plant-based?

"This was a miscalculation. I didn't expect there to be such a remote place in Shanghai. I thought that a metropolis like Shanghai would have convenient transportation and be able to go anywhere." Lingling wrapped her arms around Ling Tianyu's neck and muttered a complaint.

They entrusted this task on a whim, without thinking too much about it, and the result was...

"Lingling, you've gotten heavier, I can hardly carry you anymore!" Ling Tianyu joked, feeling the weight on his shoulders and hearing the slight breathing.

"How is that possible!" Lingling couldn't stand hearing that, baring her little tiger teeth and biting Ling Tianyu's shoulder.

"Damn it! You're like a dog, you even bite!"

…………

Finally, just as the afternoon sun was at its hottest, the two arrived at Guangcheng Village.

There isn't even a decent road, so it's no wonder this place is so barren.

As soon as they arrived, Lingling couldn't wait to get off Ling Tianyu's back. Although it didn't feel bad, it still somewhat affected her image as a master hunter.

Guangcheng Village doesn't even have a decent brick or stone house; most of the houses are tiled wooden structures, and a few thatched houses can be vaguely seen in the distance. The living conditions are visibly poor and difficult.

Unfortunately, the gap between the rich and the poor in this world is too wide. Assets are concentrated in the hands of powerful mages, while the lives of ordinary fishermen at the bottom who have not awakened magic are entirely dependent on the weather. If the weather is bad, they will go hungry nine times in three days, and if the harvest is better, they can only barely make ends meet.

At first glance, it seems that apart from the elderly, there are only some children who have been fostered here in this village.

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(End of this chapter)