Reporting for duty, Captain

As they walked to the Captain's office, the female clerk Lu xi explained the affairs of the group.

" Together with the Sir, there are 7 main members in the group two, not counting the captain, usually the apart from issuing assignments, the captain does not interfere with the missions of the group, unless it requires so.

" Some missions might also be personal requiring just one member too, also although it seldom happens there could also be joint missions involving all the groups headed by Commander Yan.

" Aside duties, the affairs of the station are relatively lax, Sir may spend his time as he wishes, the other immortals also do ".

Zhan Shenwei found it quite funny a bit that the mortals of the Canglang continent referred to cultivators as Immortals.

Although they had evolved their life form non of them had truly ascended to Immortality.

Though there was a lot of disparity between mortals and cultivator, this form of address, the norm of the Canglan continent made him a bit uncomfortable.

Apart from qi, powers, higher lifespan, divine abilities, combat techniques and so on and and so forth he wasn't any different from the mortals, cultivators also ate, shat, and could die too.

Of course as they evolved, the normal physiological process of cultivators would change, for example foundation establishments could subsist longer without found and didn't excrete waste the usual way like mortals.

But for Zhan Shenwei, he had stopped excreting a long while, ever since he formed his Primordial chaos god heart, any food he ate was completely devoured and assimilated, hence no excretion.

And there was no stopping meals for him, he liked eating delicious meals, and eating, no, devouring was Primordial god cultivation.

Reaching a door, Lu xi entered, before exiting in a few minutes and ushering Zhan Shenwei in.

....

Zhan Shenwei entered the office of this his group captain, he could smell an incense that lingered in the room calmed him and lightening his thoughts.

The office was tidy and spacious, though unlike the shelfs where the parchments there were tidy, the wide main desk was littered with numerous parchments, but Zhan Shenwei could see a pattern.

The left and right sides had parchments pilled up relatively tidier and the large middle area was messy.

" Probably reports and assignments" , Zhan Shenwei thought.

And he was right, the desk contained work that garned Li Mu present attention.

Reports to the right, assignments to the left.

Curtsing, with a light bow, Zhan Shenwei addressed his immediate superior.

" Zhan Shenwei reporting to the Captain for duty "

Li Mu nodded his head in response, " welcome to group to under my command ".

Li Mu was a slightly middle aged man with a somewhat effeminate face, he had a wide smile on his face as he addressed Zhan Shenwei, his voice a bit shrill.

He even stood up and approached Zhan Shenwei, his slender fingers touching his shoulders lightly before returning to his seat.

Zhan Shenwei felt a bit uncomfortable towards this abrupt contact from a stranger but shook it off.

" What is your cultivation level, battle techniques or combat abilities", he said, and as if about to counter any apprehension Zhan Shenwei might have to his question he continued.

" Though it might sound a bit presumptuous but as your captain I need to have a basic gauge of your strength to able to know the tasks I can allocate to you and also be able to position you well during joint missions", Li Mu said, the smile on his face making him appear harmless and kind.

Staring at Zhan Shenwei he waited for his response, subtly checking his mannerisms for various clues at his personality.

Zhan Shenwei felt what the captain said made sense, it sounded normal for the captain to have a basic idea of the strength of his subordinates, and the reasons he listed too also made sense, not really seeing an issue, Zhan Shenwei prepared to answer.

Li Mu didn't have any worries that his question would find any strangeness at his question, it was reasonable and if he asked around later too he had also done this tobthe rest of the team.

His hand cupped in a light bow he responded, " Reporting to the Captain, this humble one has has an humble cultivation a the early Qi refinement realm and three battle techniques at techniques at the Mastery realm ".

With his goal to earn lots of credits to join Xia Yunzi at the Mystic heaven sect, he didn't want to display low capabilities to avoid being secluded from important rewarding actions.

Zhan Shenwei had already made up his mind to reveal some of his cards, he had already done his research, from among the various city guards, a cultivation level of the early qi refinement was not quite too bad, with only the more powerful ones having middle or late qi refinement stage cultivation, with captain's possessing peak qi refinement and some stronger ones having a cultivation of early foundation establishment.

Of course battle capabilities could differ from this, cultivation level was just the basis, combat techniques, weapons, constitutions and all sorts of external factors could determine the final result between a show down of two cultivators.

Zhan Shenwei's early qi refinement cultivation was at the lowest bottom end, he wouldn't get good missions or treatments so he had to reveal certain cards.

Continuing he said " I also have innate physical strength and a demonic bloodline capable of increasing my physical strength by several amounts ".

Yes, he had subtly revealed the Sacred Blood demon Emperor divine ability as a bloodline, together with the previous ones he mentioned, his three battle techniques at the Mastery realm, Zhan Shenwei estimated he could be ranked as a strong middle qi refinement cultivator, hence better conditions.

Although he could also accept external missions from the main city guard headquarters hence credits, the main basis of any city guard promotion was their work duties and achievements.

If you have enough credits but your work records are not good enough you wouldn't be considered for promotions, after all it meant you didn't pay good attention to your given work duties.

Zhan Shenwei could infer the reason for this somehow, it meant lack of dedication to the City guard force and in a way, somehow, disloyalty.

Although earning credit from the main board also required completing tasks for the city guard force and the sect behind it, one could argue as credit were very useful, it was done for person gain.

Credit and duty were somehow related, but different.

Having listened to Zhan Shenwei, Li Mu replied, " Alright, take the rest of the day to familiarize yourself with the rest of the group and the station, you'll be receiving your tasks and any instructions from me at the front desk from Lu xi, but if you have any issues, feel free to meet me " 

Zhan Shenwei cupped his fist again in response, " it's alright you may leave ", Li Mu reacted, the smile never leaving his face.

But after Zhan Shenwei left the door, the plastered smile faded, his face quite emotionless.

Taking a certain parchment from within the pile, he opened it.

The parchment was relatively empty apart from the name " Zhan Shenwei" written on it, taking his ink quill Li Mu wrote in front : Late qi refinement, then folded the parchment.

Standing up, he went to a corner cage as he removed a cyan carrier bird and put the parchment in front of it.

The cyan carrier bird as if finding a delicacy took steps to the parchment and started to gooble it up in few bits.

 Not obviously surprised at this Li Mu pressed a certain mechanism in the office and a roof latch opened up.

The cyan carrier bird having eaten the parchment glowed with a cyan hue as it flew away through the latch.

The cyan carrier bird was one of the means by cultivators to communicate.

A spirit bird with a fondness for paper and spirit ink, after eating a parchment, it would fly to a commanded location and deliver a message.

The master could direct with the bird via spirit sense and the bird would only speak the written words of the eaten parchment to the sent person.

Any other, it wasn't possible.

The only way to stop or sabotage a message from the spirit carrier bird was to kill the bird.

Due to this secure and peculiar function, cyan carrier birds were very expensive.

The cyan spirit bird flew from the harbor port, entering the bright jade City, into the inner city, before settling on the top floor of the city guard administrative building in the city guard main base.

At a back side window of the City Lord Lu zhenchuan's office.