Quartex The System

Qingwei Town

Qingwei town was situated between Chen Clan and the Qing Royal City, whenever anyone wished to do business in Qing City they would usually pass through this town.

The wide blue sky was mostly clear revealing the brilliance of the bright sun, the earth below embraced its dazzling light and welcomed its warm rays of light. Large birds flew together over the town as they flocked closely to each other.

In the main street of Qingwei Town, many stalls could be seen set up outside their residences with their owners sitting behind them selling their products. The town was somewhat lively as usual as one could hear the customer's passionately bargaining over the price of goods that they had taken an interest in.

The main street of Qingwei Town was also known as the "market district", like in many other cities of the world.

The town was bustling with activity, the stalls off the sides of the street created a wide clear area in between them for the visitors as well as the townspeople walk with enough room, so although the town was somewhat lively it wasn't crowded. The stores sold all kinds of goods ranging from low-grade pills of various types, food, and medicinal herbs, to weapons and armour. Some people had even found their own place and lied out a clean rug to do their businesses selling all kinds of weird "treasures". The more well-known stores had customers waiting in line patiently to the side waiting for their turn and it seemed that they didn't dare to cause trouble.

That's because the town's chief in charge of the market district, Feng Gang, was a late-stage Spirit Realm Cultivator! If anyone wanted to cause trouble then they would have to deal with him. However, who would dare to fight back against a late-stage Spirit Realm Cultivator like him?

While Earth Realm Cultivators enjoyed the status of "Grandmaster", Spirit Realm Cultivators enjoyed their own status of "Master". Since this Feng Gang was on the higher end of Spirit Realm one would have to give him more respect than ones who were in the low stages, it wasn't necessarily a rule, it was just because people tend to kiss up to a possible "Grandmaster". If they didn't and he ended up making a breakthrough to the Earth Realm, who were they supposed to cry to? If ordinary people missed out on getting on his good books who were they supposed to kill? Themselves?

With the favour of such a high-level cultivator, it was as good as having a second life, in this world, while strength was the most important, status and face would be the second. High-level characters tend to keep their promises the more one progresses on the road of cultivation. They were no god, if they committed a sin, for example, killing an entire town of innocent civilians, their reputation would be stained, the more unruly ones, for the sake of "humanity" would be ganged up on the other cultivators and would most likely die.

This was something that most people had to think about, with great power comes great responsibility, one should always remember that they weren't the only ones walking on the path of cultivation. If one should become unruly and sought to conquer the world with evil, they would be killed.

So one could see that if a high-level cultivator were to offer you a favour, they would, of course, help you to some extent.

Within the streets, was an old bar with many older people chatting away laughing and drinking. The bar had a large window wrapping around the front of its shop allowing those sitting at the window inside to see the many people out walking about browsing and bargaining. To the outside, the bar appeared old but the inside of the bar was actually quite good. Chairs and tables were everywhere with people sitting in them awaiting the bartender to serve them.

At this moment a group of vagrant cultivators was sitting inside the bar around a table and after one took a big mouthful of alcohol he couldn't help but ask his fellow brothers if they knew about the news.

"Hey, have you heard the news about the Chen Clan-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, one of his good buddies immediately covered his mouth hushing him. When the rest of the group heard him they couldn't help but be curious,

His good buddle said with a silent hush, "Friend, you should not talk about such things so loudly, if you wish to die, die by yourself, I don't wish to throw my life"

They were good brothers that normally hunted the spiritual beasts around this area for a living, today was their group meet-up, in fact, the rest of the figures gathered at the table were apart of their hunting group, after several days of rest, they came together to talk about some things. The rest of the group were resting, preparing for their next hunt so naturally, they wouldn't have heard about the rumours.

His sworn brother looked around the room and noticed that not many people heard them, he sighed in relief.

A middle-aged man in the group known as, Senior Xia, seemed to be interested in what Tan Mu had to say, he asked in a quiet whisper, "Friend, what news?"

Seeing the senior interested he said quietly after being stared at by his brother next to him, "There has been a rumour going around that an important figure of the Chen Clan has been gravely injured"

"Oh?"

"What makes you say this?" Another person in the group frowned but he was also interested, he was a young man known as Zhong Ming. The Chen Clan was one of the big influential families as well one of the most famous Clans in the Qinglu State, news about the Chen Clans Headmaster Chen Luoyang's talent had reached far and wide even entering the ears of the Sects!

Naturally, any news about them would interest the cultivators.

Looking around and noticing no one had picked up on them Tan Mu leaned forwards, "Four days ago it was said someone saw the famous Medical Master Mr Duan being escorted by those of the Chen Family in a hurry. It was said that this important figure who was gravely injured was rumoured to be the Grandmasters daughter, Chen Chao!"

There was a collective gasp of at the table, someone then said a little displeased, "Rumors are just rumours, don't spread with your mouth what your eyes didn't see" although he was rude, it was true.

With a "Hmph" the Tan Mu talking shut his mouth, when the others saw that he wasn't talking any more the others around the table glared at their friend for being rude towards him. The guy was indifferent. Although they were displeased they didn't voice it.

Zhong Ming quickly spoke up, "Brother Mu, how was she injured?"

Brother Mu opened his right eye with a smile, it seemed his playing hard to get worked, he said slowly, "This I don't know very much, apparently she was ambushed on her way back to the Clan from Qing City. I heard this piece of information from a vagrant cultivator who claimed to have heard directly from the stranger who saw it with his own eyes. The news should be reliable"

After a short moment of silence, Senior Xia couldn't help but speak, "Who would dare to ambush the daughter of a Grandmaster? Not to mention this Grandmaster is Clan head himself, do they seek death?"

After a round of drinks and chatting away giving their own opinions on the matter they went back to their own business of strategizing for their next big hunt.

...

At this moment, in Qingwei's main street, a figure could be seen walking around while darting his head this way and that way curiously looking at the stalls. This figure's face couldn't be seen as he hid it with the cover of the hood of the long dark brown robe. If one looked carefully they would see that his white hair was slightly coming out from underneath the hood, other than that there was nothing special about the way he looked.

The people nearby only glanced at the figure and judged that he was just a simple wondering vagrant cultivator who didn't wish to be seen, afterwards, the onlookers just turned their heads back to continue their daily tasks. It was if they didn't find this type of person suspicious.

In this world, there were many hidden dragons and crouching tigers hiding in the shadows, it was these type of people many people feared, it was the fear of the unknown.

This "vagrant cultivator" in the long dark brown robe was precisely Zhao Yun.

Two days have passed since he escaping the imprisonment of the Chen Clan and during these two days he had been laying low and finally made his way back to his hometown, Qingwei town.

For those who were wondering how he got over the Chen Clans' wall, it was quite simple really. He climbed to the top of a tall thick tree, took out his sword from his inventory, and tied a long green vine he found to the bottom of its hilt. With his cultivation now being in the Fifth Stage of the Elementary Realm and having taken the "Body Restoration Pill," his body now was even better than his one even on Earth

It wasn't difficult and he very easily threw the sword over the wall. Using it as a grapple, he simply just tugged on the vines and climbed over the tall fifteen-meter wall. As soon as he made it over the wall, he immediately left without looking back, he had to put some distance between him and the Chen Clan.

During these two days, he spent wondering the forest running, whenever he got tired he slowed down and rested. When he first escaped, not even half a day later he was already on the verge of collapsing, because of this he had no choice but to use another Energy Vitality Pill.

It was not surprising at all that he felt exhausted when he received the gifts from the system he was on the verge of dying from starvation as it was, then he took the Body Restoration Pill which made his body undergo a rebirth. However, because of this, his energy was completely spent and the system had no choice but to initiate its survival protocol to ensure that he did not die. It ended up using the Energy Vitality Pill to restore his strength.

Afterwards, he merged with the Divine Spiritual Veins which ended up consuming a portion of his strength, his body felt somewhat hungover.

After escaping the prison, to avoid falling into any traps he injected himself with the Mystic Eye Bloodline which was a very gruelling process, this consumed a large amount of his physical as well as his mental energy. It was a surprise that he didn't collapse then! However, with his hungover and tired mind, he even had to use the Mystic Eyes for long periods of time which consumed a large amount of his spiritual energy.

After escaping the Chen Clan it was already shocking that he was still able to continue running for half a day with his over-exhausted self. He naturally couldn't be picky trying to save his life-saving pills since, as long as he had his life, as long as there was still breath in his body, there was hope in taking revenge if he should.

He took the Energy Vitality Pill and his strength was restored, with that he continued to run. The energy provided by the Energy Vitality Pill was enough to keep him going, although his body and mind were exhausted, his mind was very strong. It thanks to the arduous training he received on Earth from his old man and with his now inhuman body that no earthling could achieve, he was like a fish in the water. Two days of running non-stop were not much of a problem for him.

While he was running a familiar image appeared in his mind making him take more notice of his surroundings, it was then did he realize that he was close to his past life's hometown. Qingwei Town.

Following the familiar road, he eventually found his way, which leads to the present.

Although the stores sold many numbers of strange items, Zhao Yun was poor and besides he was only concerned about one thing.

Taking several twists and turns in the streets following his passed life's memories he eventually found his way to the place he was looking for. Home.

He stood in front of a shabby looking wooden shop, the holes in the wall were covered over by several out of placed planks of wood. Looking up he could see a signboard with the name "Medicinal Herb Zi" that was only attached to one nail swinging side to side, it looked close to falling off.

Removing his brown robe hood that was covering his face his head was revealed. His long white hair with strands coloured black flowed down to his shoulders giving him a strange look, his blue eyes that were normally shining brightly was now somewhat dim and had some dark lines underneath them. His face was as white as a sheet of paper.

Zhao Yun couldn't help but sigh, "You have indeed suffered hardsh.i.p.s" His passed self had endured many sufferings due to being a cripple. It was a surprise that even he had made it so far in life.

He took a step forward but suddenly started to sway, "I can't... hold on for much longer"

His vision started to blur and he struggled to keep himself moving, with the last amount of strength left in his body, he pushed the door to the shop open and dazedly made his way in.