Early next morning, Qian Yu left his inn as he went to Drunken Tavern before the four of them left the city. 

Along the way, he learned that he was by far, the weakest of all of them. The leader was a 8th stage qi gathering realm. Meanwhile, the middle-aged man was in the 6th stage of qi gathering and the girl was in the 5th stage of qi gathering. 

Somehow, he always turned out to be the dead weight. ‘I just need a few more jobs to get enough money,’ Qian Yu thought to himself as he mentally prepared for the mission. 

In all honesty, if he wasn’t in such a rush to make money, he would have never participated in such a risky job. However, he knew that it was fine as long as the leader wasn’t wrong in his information. They had the advantage in numbers and as long as they were cautious, it would be fine.

“Alright, the beast we need to hunt is the Demonic Wild Boar,” the leader said as the group followed his lead. 

Hearing the name of the beast, Qian Yu had never heard of it. Since the geography and climate of the Soba Empire was a little different from the Southern Ice Continent, there would of course be different spiritual beasts.

Seeing as no one said anything, the leader continued, “What are your strengths? I excel in the sword.”

In other words, he was asking about their cultivation technique, to which the other two rogue cultivators replied, “Fist type cultivation technique” and “Fire cultivation technique, I use a sword.”

As for Qian Yu, he only replied saying “close-combat cultivation technique.”

Hearing it, the leader and the others frowned for a bit. Close combat was too vague of a term and it wouldn’t really help them in making any plans. Yet when they remembered he was at the 1st stage of qi gathering, their perception of him turned into contempt. 

‘Sure you are pretty young and handsome but so what? You’re weak as hell right now,’ they sneered in their minds. 

Following that, the group made plans on how to handle the spiritual beast. However, they just gave casual roles to Qian Yu such as assisting the male rogue cultivator when he was fighting the boar. The two would attract most of the boar’s attention while the leader and female rogue cultivator would focus on inflicting damage and lethal attacks.

Two days later, a group of 4 were staring at a gigantic boar that was grazing in a meadow. It was a humongous pig that was 10 feet tall with tusks about 3 feet long. Seeing it, Qian Yu was slightly regretting his decision. ‘Getting impaled by those didn’t seem fun,’ he sighed.

Still, it was already too late, and he had learned from the others that even though it was a peak uncommon grade spiritual beast, it was a pretty stupid beast. 

As they got closer to the beast, the beast eventually noticed them stepping over its precious territory. 

“ROARRR!” With a roar, it immediately stampeded towards the group of 4. Of course, it was easily dodged by the 4 as they surrounded the boar. Without saying anything, they got directly into their positions. The middle-aged man directly started provoking the boar. 

“Boar Beating Punch,” the man yelled out as he a heavy aura of qi emanated from his fist as he punched the side of the boar. 

Hearing the martial skill, the boar roared in fury as it immediately went to counterattack. ‘That can’t be the real name…’ Qian Yu thought as he continued to rain punches onto the wild boar. 

When he saw that the middle-aged man was having trouble keeping up with the boar, Qian Yu would use Lightning Spasm to inflict some pain on the boar. Although he was only at the first stage of the qi gathering realm, Lightning Spasm didn’t require much qi. Normally, someone at his level could only use the martial skill a couple of times before they were drained of qi. 

*Bam!* *Boom!* After about half an hour, the other three saw that Qian Yu was still pumping out Lightning Spasms every few minutes despite his low stage. Slowly, their perception of him turned better. 

Meanwhile all this time, the female cultivator had been continuously attacking the boar with her “Ember Slash”. When he saw her use it for the first time, he instantly remembered that one of the rogue cultivators back home had it as well. 

After some thinking, it became pretty obvious what was going on. Most normal rogue cultivators without any background used low graded cultivation techniques at the mortal, earth, and sky ranked. Basically, they used whatever they could find and over time, the more popular and useful ones became a staple such as the earth ranked Ember Blade cultivation technique where the skill “ember slash” came from. 

What the female cultivator was focusing on however, wasn’t just randomly attacking the boar. More specifically, she had unleashed her martial skill at the same area on the boar’s hide. At first, it didn’t seem like there was any noticeable damage, but after half an hour, there was a large wound in the boar’s hide. 

‘ROAR!!!” At this point, the boar grew madder and roared louder than ever before. It was no longer provoked by Qian Yu and the middle-aged man but it instead recklessly chased the female rogue cultivator. 

Seeing this as the best moment, the leader finally stepped in for the finishing blow. 

“Piercing Sword!” he yelled as the leader infused qi into the sword. Seeing the sword now, Qian Yu felt a sharp aura from it and the leader hurriedly stabbed into the wound of the enraged Demonic Wild Boar. 

*Splat!* blood exploded out from the wound as the organs and muscle near the sword immediately exploded. Seeing the attack, Qian Yu felt startled. Even though the man had the same cultivation as Zhao Xieren, this attack had more punch than Zhao Xieren’s Wandering Blade. Of course, the leader’s Piercing Sword wasn’t as fast as the Wandering Blade and could easily be dodged but Qian Yu knew he wasn’t your average rogue cultivator. 

*Thud*  the lifeless boar dropped to the ground. Following that, the leader went over and used his sword to cut the boar apart until he found the beast core. 

Looking at the core, Qian Yu could feel the difference in qi and power of the uncommon ranked beast core when compared to the common ranked beast core. ‘No wonder they are so much more expensive and can be used to craft weapons!‘ Qian Yu thought to himself. 

He didn’t know much about weapon crafting but he did know that crafters could use beast cores to enhance the material and power of the weapon and material. As such, these beast cores were without a doubt, dozens of times more expensive than common ranked beast cores that were much more common and weaker.

Seeing that everything was done, the leader paid the three of them before everyone started heading their own ways. In the end, only the leader was returning to Allwake City while the other two cultivators separated from them. As such, the two of them decided to travel together as it would be safer. 

On the way back however, it was completely different. 

“Good job out there, what’s your name?” the guy asked Qian Yu. 

“My name’s Qian Yu, what about you?” Qian Yu replied. Finally, it seemed like he met some amiable on this journey.

“The name’s Zhong Chun, you did pretty good for someone at the 1st layer of the qi gathering realm. If I need some people or find a job, I’ll make sure to ask you haha!” he complimented Qian Yu before laughing. 

In Zhong Chun’s perspective, Qian Yu was indeed pretty useful. Even though his attacks weren’t that useful due to the strong hide of the Demonic Wild Boar, it didn’t mean he was weak. In fact, he could tell that it was pretty useful and strong for the most dangerous enemies of rogue cultivators. In such a world where the weak die, rogue cultivators weren’t really afraid of spiritual beasts due to their lack of intelligence. What was really the most dangerous were other humans!

“Ahh thank you!” Qian Yu was happy, realizing that this would help a lot since he knew little of the rogue cultivation world.