Rewards

When Chao turned over to Luo's group, he could plainly see how their gazes towards him change. Luo, Dui, and Shi now all stood with absolute respect. Their expression was serious as it can be while their eyes blazed with a fiery passion.

Luo led the group forward as he carefully spoke each of his next words. "Chao! No...that's not right, boss! We are willing to completely serve under you after all of this! Your future is brighter than the heavens. We only hope our humble selves are enough to be worthy of being the boss underlings."

"That's right boss. What about the other families' powers? Their geniuses aren't even worthy enough of cleaning up after your waste!" Dui eagerly added on.

"Hmph. So what of other families' powers? Much less them, even the Big Three Sect geniuses are massively inferior to the boss!" Shi served as the perfect last bootlicking comment.

Their reactions were particularly intense.

Chao was slightly caught off-guard. The value of strength is the utmost priority in their society, but this kind of eagerness went beyond all expectations.

But upon thinking about it for a moment, Chao suddenly recalled that one cultivation book where it talks about the tier of geniuses.

As Chao was only a 3rd layer genius, he had just demonstrated prowess on the Heavenly Tier level!

One must not forget that the chasm between the minor boundary phase is wide as a chasm and becomes increasingly massive with each proceeding cultivation realm. Even while in the Origin Realm, it's truly rare to hear about a 3rd layer genius beating the 4th layer.

Chao's performance had even gone beyond merely defeating the 4th layer. He utterly slaughtered him and numerous other 3rd layer cultivators!

That squadron combined might would be too much for even a two-man 4th layer group who are at the peak of this layer.

Yet, Chao effortlessly did everything in a matter of seconds.

Anyone, even old Elders would be horrified at this scene.

After getting over his initial shock. Chao calmly smiled. The first subordinates have finally been acquired.

And Chao didn't have any reservations about putting them to work immediately. He reached into his pocket to bring out contact and flicked it towards Luo.

Chao then explained, "If you all don't mind, I actually have a task for you now. It's nothing too heavy or serious. All I need from you three is to shadow my younger sister and protect her for when and after she becomes a cultivator. Don't worry about having to take time off your patrol. I will generously pay you three for a good job done. I'll even convince the higher-ups to cut in half your patrol time so you can actively protect her."

"Boss has a sister?" Luo gasped along with Dui and Shi. Out of everything, this felt the most surprising to them.

A tentative look crossed their expressions. Luo carefully asked, "I don't mean anything by this, boss. But, since she is your sister, does she also have extreme cultivation talent?"

"Oh, this?" Chao was at ease with this question. He even lightly smiled. "I'm afraid she is more on the average side of things. This is why I want more protection for her. Call me paranoid, but I want her to have as smooth of a cultivation journey as possible."

"Ah, I see!" Luo, Duo, and Shi all nodded in understanding. They were honestly moved by such compassion.

Even in lower-power families or organizations, coming across such compassion is tough.

Life is a constant struggle against the environment and countless other ambitious cultivators. It wasn't strange that it breeds generations of people who are colder, calculating, and indifferent towards each other.

Seeing Chao stray from usual standards already made their high impression of Chao go even higher.

Luo determinedly nodded and said, "Even if the boss has trouble convincing the higher-ups, we will be sure to still cut out a great amount of time to shadow your sister! Naturally, we can't let down your expectations, right boys?"

"Right!" Shi and Dui's responses were automatic, the same fire blazing within their eyes.

Chao happily smiled. His then eyes surveyed the ruined battlefield and said, "Excellent. Now then, let's clear up the rewards here, shall we? And don't worry, everyone will be satisfied with the rewards. Don't sweat the small details about the work put in. As my subordinates, it's only natural that I'm fair to each of you."

Chao's persuasive momentum shut down any rising protest from Luo's group. In fact, they felt even more appreciative.

After a short looting of corpses, Chao managed to find four spatial rings.

These were spatial rings from 3rd layer experts and a 4th layer expert. The amount of resources within them is a staggering amount. There had to be at least hundreds of low-grade Spirit energy crystals in just one 3rd layer expert's spatial ring. While the 4th layer even had a few dozen Spirit energy crystals!

Furthermore, these experts also had extra supplies of low-grade Spirit weapons. They were sure ample prepared for nearly all situations.

Such rewards made Chao internally sigh. The advantages of a background truly are amazing. Even with his own high combat prowess, without proper resources, Chao would still be stuck in the 2nd layer.

The only thing this squadron lacked was proper Spirit tier healing pills. The most they had were high-grade mortal pills. It was better than nothing, but couldn't possibly match up to a true low-grade Spirit pill.

Chao could tell even more than ever that Alchemists truly are special.

In good fairness, Chao gave Luo's group two spatial rings while he kept the 4th layer expert spatial ring and one other 3rd layer expert spatial ring.

When they finished, Chao told Luo's group that they would be reporting back to headquarters because of another attempted ambush.

No disagreement arouse so the group of four quickly headed out of Creek's wilderness.

Along the way, Chao recalled the ambush. This time, he pondered just why these ambushes occurred back to back.

Even though Chao is a newcomer to the Ming family, he can still tell this should be a usual occurrence.

Chao had even asked Luo's group opinion on this subject, asking, "Do any of you know why the Fang family is becoming increasingly aggressive? I take it, while ambushes occur, it's typically far more sporadic than what we experienced."

Luo, Dui, and Shi all put on puzzled expressions. They thought it over for a few minutes before eventually shrugging.

Luo helplessly said, "Not sure at all, boss. Even when we were under Captain Pao Dai, we didn't come across a single ambush. Perhaps, some undercurrent or scheme is occurring? This is our best guess."

Chao was left just as stumped as them. He had no choice but to simply leave it alone for now.

Feeling as if something ominous could be lurking around, Chao felt increasingly assured at having constant bodyguards for Chen Li.

Although this didn't lower his own guard for greater strength. It only fueled his drive to increase his cultivation even faster.

...

After a short while, Chao's group reached the Ming Family's captain's quarters.

His arrival caused quite a stir. Many patrol guards, regular guards, and other fellow soldier captains were positively stunned that Chao already reached the 3rd layer!

It was already known that Chao reached soldier captain through great battle achievements and his battle prowess surpassed anything ordinary.

But nobody could have expected him to actually be the 3rd layer within a short amount of time.

Many were curious, but Chao didn't want to waste time. He simply strolled right past everyone and into the captain's corridors with the excuse he had something urgent to show Captain Lee.

Chao recalled the pathway he took last time and quickly reached Captain Lee's room.

Upon entering, he was slightly taken aback.

In the room were both Captain Lee and an unfamiliar man.

He was tall, rough, and experienced looking and exuded a dangerous, sharp presence. This was a veteran man who's been through numerous grueling bloodshed.

With a brief search through his soul sense, Chao's outward expression stayed calm, but he was internally shocked. 'Such thickness in Origin Qi...it surpasses even those Big Three sects' geniuses. He's actually in the 7th layer! A mastered phase Origin expert!'

The chasm from the Tilted to Mastered phase was even greater than the Ordinary to Tilted phase. At the Mastered Phase, one would be able to utilize 70% of Origin Qi power and 16% of Ordinary Law essence power!

This kind of combination is utterly terrifying.

Chao can recall historic books detailing that even a weak 7th layer expert runs through a 100-man army of Titled phase Origin cultivators. The destruction they leave in the wake of their powers can easily smash apart small villages or even mortal houses built from stone.

Any Mastered Origin expert can easily frighten weaker cultivators from their mere presence.

But to Chao, he calmly gazed at this Mastered Origin cultivator with a mixture of curiosity and silent excitement.