Chapter 54: Life 58, Age 60, Martial Grandmaster 5
After the first man fell, several more stepped up to challenge me. I made sure that they all went through the mission hall to make sure that there would be no problems in the future. While not everyone was happy doing so, the promise of ten Meridian Builder Pills if they won was enough encouragement to ensure everything went smoothly.
I sparred with them for nearly half a day. None of those who stepped forward were particularly powerful, so I could have used my higher cultivation to defeat any of them quickly, but my focus was on honing my skills. A couple of times, I lost a bout because my opponent was better at fighting. This helped because when those people got payouts, others were more eager to step forward. I was able to practice nearly all the fire-based martial skills that I had learned, and this gave me a lot more confidence in my ability to defend myself in the future.
Finally, a group of people stopped me before anyone else could step forward.
“Hey,” the leader shouted, “are you the one looking for an escort to the inner sect?”
“Oh,” I realized who they were. “Yes, yes that’s me. Are you ready to go?”
They looked me up and down and laughed a little to themselves. I was covered in dirt and my robes had seen better days.
The leader nodded. “Let’s go.”
Our trip to the inner sect was pretty short, it only took us about 15 minutes to get there. Earlier, the receptionist was trying to stop me from creating this mission since she must’ve known how short it would be, and after all the sparring, it seemed less likely that anyone would cause trouble for me, so I may have been able to make the trip alone without any problems. However, I didn’t regret my expenditure. The trip was smooth, and it didn’t cost me anything of real value.
When we reached the opening to the Lower Mountain, I handed them each an extra bottle of pills.