Lin Er was certain that he had not misheard Flora’s introduction. In his heart, hesitation, confusion and doubt rose.

No matter how he looked at her, Flora resembled an elf from movies and television dramas and she had personally introduced her identity, confirming it.

Combined with everything he had seen before, the seed of suspicion had already been planted.

Had he entered the wrong world?

Or rather, this was a special type of cultivation world.

Elves and black dragons and the like were actually perfectly normal and nothing to make a fuss over.

Lin Er calmed himself and said, “Hello, my name is Lin Er. Thank you for saving my life just now. I’m not too sure where the Adventurers’ Guild you mentioned is either, but I have a map. If you don’t mind, we can walk together. Maybe we’ll be able to find it.”

Flora’s gaze lingered on his face and her expression shifted slightly.

“For now, teaming up is the optimal solution. Agreed.”

After saying that, she turned around and walked toward the black bear, pulling out her arrow.

Next, the black bear’s corpse turned into a stream of light and fell into the cloth bag in her hand.

Lin Er widened his eyes and exclaimed in amazement.

He withdrew his gaze and remembered his reward.

It turned out that as long as he did not claim it, the reward would remain stored in the system space, but once taken out, it could not be put back in again.

With his back to Flora, in a place outside her line of sight, Lin Er took out the map.

When he opened it, the rough cloth showed his current location, along with nearby villages and landmark points.

As long as he followed the road beneath his feet and continued forward, then walked a bit more after reaching a fork in the road, he would reach the destination.

Fortunately, he had this map. Otherwise, wandering around like a headless fly, who knew how much time he would waste.

Lin Er put the map away, turned to Flora and said, “Let’s go this way.”

* * *

The two of them continued on their journey.

Lin Er walked for another three hours. Adding in the great effort it had taken to leave the primeval forest earlier, he had not had a single drop of water during this time and was already drenched in sweat.

He could not help but look at Flora. She was still full of vigor, her steps powerful.

Fortunately, farmland and villages finally appeared ahead. At the end of the road stood a towering and majestic city, with travelers and horse-drawn carriages passing by from time to time.

Flora could not help but say, “That city should have an Adventurers’ Guild.”

Lin Er glanced at the map again. The location of the immortal sect marked on it was also right inside that city.

Could it be that the immortal sect he was supposed to go to was actually the Adventurers’ Guild?

Impossible, absolutely impossible.

With unease in his heart, Lin Er arrived beneath the city walls. The words Blackstone City were written on the city gate.

The two entered the city and soon arrived at the center of Blackstone City. Right next to the city hall stood a tall and magnificent building.

Lin Er looked at the signboard of his destination, the Adventurers’ Guild and the last bit of hope in his heart died.

He had already given up all hope in this unreliable system.

With a sigh, he walked into the hall together with Flora.

The interior was extremely spacious. The floor was paved with marble and many adventurers were gathered here.

Flora’s identity as an elf was quite eye-catching. As soon as she entered, more than a dozen gazes turned toward her.

Lin Er also felt several gazes fall on himself. Someone was sizing him up.

The two walked to the front desk. Flora spoke first, “Hello, I want to register as an adventurer.”

The receptionist, Ellie, glanced at Lin Er and Flora and said, “Alright. Are you registering together?”

Flora glanced at Lin Er. He nodded.

Ellie pointed to a purple magic stone two meters tall beside them and said, “Please go test first. We need to register you.”

Lin Er turned to look at Flora. She seemed very familiar with this and went to test without another word.

As Flora touched the magic stone, it immediately reacted.

Those with experience had already moved away early.

Very quickly, a wind vortex formed around the magic stone, blowing like a small tornado.

As the wind dispersed, a wind rune and text lit up on the magic stone.

Only then did a staff member walk over to check, exclaiming in surprise,

“A-rank wind element affinity, First-Tier Peak Forest Ranger. Miss, you can directly obtain the Adventurers’ Guild silver badge.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding adventurers watching the excitement began to discuss among themselves.

It could be seen that many of them only wore bronze badges, yet this newcomer received a silver badge the moment she registered.

Her starting point was their finish line.

It was clear that Flora’s future was immeasurable.

Flora’s expression remained calm. She had probably already known this result. She turned to look at Lin Er and made space for him.

Because of Flora’s astonishing performance, many people gathered around to watch.

As for Lin Er, her traveling companion, they misunderstood him as Flora’s partner and their faces were filled with anticipation.

Lin Er followed her example and placed his hand on the magic stone.

The magic stone did not react. Runes and text slowly lit up on it.

The staff member looked at it in surprise. After confirming that the magic stone was not malfunctioning, he slowly said, “F-rank element affinity, no profession. Sir, we do not recommend that you register as an adventurer. Magical beasts are far too dangerous for you.”

“Pfft.”

Someone in the crowd could not help but laugh.

Lin Er frowned and looked over. Everyone else immediately put on stiff faces and said nothing.

At this moment, Flora also walked over. She opened her mouth slightly, but did not know what to say.

Lin Er did not give up because of this. He said to the staff member, “Thank you for your advice, but I still want to register as an adventurer.”

He did not know whether joining the Adventurers’ Guild counted as successfully entering an immortal sect. Since the quest location was here, he could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive.

The staff member did not try to persuade him further and guided them to register at the front desk.

Then Lin Er discovered an important fact. Registering as an adventurer cost money and he did not have a single coin on him.

Fortunately, Flora paid for him as well. He quickly received his own black iron badge. The material was crude and could not compare to the exquisite silver badge.

Lin Er held the badge and was about to thank Flora when a new prompt appeared.

[You have successfully joined a sect and become a low-tier outer sect menial disciple. Mission complete.]

[The path of cultivation lies in sincerity. Although you are only an outer sect menial, you still possess a blazing heart for the Dao.]

[New Main Quest: Please raise your status within the sect and advance to become an outer sect disciple. Reward: Yellow-Grade Turbid-Expelling Qi-Absorbing Art.]

‘It actually worked.’

Lin Er regained his spirits. He did not immediately extract his cultivation, but first turned to thank Flora.

Although the system had identified her as a demonic-path enchantress, she truly was a good elf.

Flora replied calmly, “No need to thank me. You contributed half to killing the black bear. Just pay me back later.”

In Flora’s view, Lin Er had lured out the black bear and she had merely lifted a hand in assistance. The reward should naturally be split evenly.

Lin Er was slightly surprised. After considering it, he did not stand on ceremony. He was indeed short on money right now and could not even afford food otherwise.

But he was not the kind of person who forgot kindness. He could only repay Flora once he became stronger in the future.

The two then sold the black bear at a nearby shop by the Adventurers’ Guild. Because the pelt was intact, the price was fairly decent.

After deducting the registration fee that Flora had paid in advance, he obtained a total of two Workshop Coins.

Lin Er did not hurry to figure out the local currency system. After parting with Flora, he immediately went into an empty alley and extracted his cultivation reward.

* * *

As Lin Er confirmed, he only felt a vortex appear in his dantian, greedily absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy to strengthen itself.

However, for some reason, it could never be filled. The vortex rapidly expanded, spreading to the surrounding environment. The affected range grew larger and larger.

[Detected insufficient spiritual energy due to unknown reasons. Expanding absorption range. Target: any object containing spiritual energy.]

Lin Er was startled.

Before he could think further, a violent wind suddenly rose, heaven and earth changed, black clouds gathered and the sky darkened in an instant.

Lightning flashed at low altitude, rumbling loudly.

A bolt of lightning struck not far from his feet. The smell of scorching filled the air, extremely terrifying.

Lin Er felt all the hair on his body stand on end.

He only wanted to refine Qi. Why did it look like he was undergoing a tribulation?

If that lightning struck him, would he not end up black and blue all over?

Finally, Lin Er felt the spiritual energy in his dantian gradually fill up and the abnormal phenomena in the environment subsided as well.

When he moved slightly, his bones crackled, his muscles were filled with power and his entire body had been cleansed and refined.

Qi Refining Level 1.

‘I did it!’

Lin Er let out a breath. Luckily, he had not extracted his cultivation inside the Adventurers’ Guild earlier. Otherwise, it would have been impossible not to attract attention with such a commotion.

Just as he was about to rejoice, new prompts appeared.

[Because you refined Qi through a heretical path, you have enraged the local earth, water, wind and fire elemental spirits. The favorability of this land toward you has dropped into the negatives.]

[Do not expose your identity as a heretical cultivator.]

[Hide yourself and clean up properly.]

Lin Er was dumbfounded.

‘I didn’t even do anything. How did I become a heretical cultivator?’