The Speedrun Begins with Choosing Hunter

"Dong Wanjun, Grand Commander of the Divine Mansion Army, charged into the Shiwan Mountains alone. Ten days later, he returned with the head of the Soul Chasing Tower Lord, shocking all of Ling Province!"

Tsk, tsk.

Ma Dingjun and the others stared, dumbfounded, at the intelligence report from the Divine Mansion Army in Bai Yuan’s hands.

Their junior brother’s master was truly a beast.

The Soul Chasing Tower Lord of Huanglong Prefecture was a powerhouse at the peak of the Entering the Realm.

Yet he was beheaded by Dong Wanjun. Word was, his head would be hung on the city gates of Huanglong Prefecture tomorrow.

With the Soul Chasing Tower Lord dead, the Demon Sect forces within Huanglong Prefecture’s borders had no choice but to retreat.

After all, the Tianxin Sect Leader alone couldn’t possibly withstand the thunderous attacks of both Murong Tian and Dong Wanjun. The slightest misstep, and they would suffer the same fate as the Soul Chasing Tower Lord.

The Demon Sect’s retreat would affect more than just Huanglong Prefecture; the tide of battle across the entire Ling Province would shift.

Bai Yuan had been worried that the Soul Chasing Tower Lord might personally come after him over the matter of Xu Kang.

He never expected Old Dong to just eliminate that possibility entirely.

Peace returned to Huanglong Prefecture. Sect Leader Murong Tian had already gone back to the Sect Leader Hall on the main peak, but Old Dong showed no signs of returning. Word was he had already charged into the neighboring Qingyang Prefecture, apparently vowing to make sure the two Demon Sect titans of Huanglong Prefecture died a neat and tidy death together.

"Senior Sister You, you’re back."

Not long after Bai Yuan returned, You Shengnan and Xiongshan also arrived back at Wan Jun Peak.

After leaving the Divine Mansion Sect together that day, the two of them had parted ways with Bai Yuan.

The task Old Dong had given them was to head south to the border of Huanglong Prefecture, wait for Zhou Siming, and deliver a secret letter into his hands.

You Shengnan nodded.

She and Xiongshan had, of course, already heard about Bai Yuan killing Xu Kang, the Thunderbolt Hand.

Bai Yuan had even earned the nickname "Little Ren Tu" in the Jianghu.

Everyone was saying Bai Yuan had a hint of Dong Wanjun’s old flair.

For a moment, You Shengnan felt a little dazed as she looked at Bai Yuan.

She was, after all, the one who brought Bai Yuan into the sect. She had presided over the disciple recruitment ceremony back in Qinghe County. She never imagined that the young man from a small city’s Martial Arts Hall would now have grown into such a powerhouse.

This junior brother’s progress in martial arts was truly monstrous.

"Junior Brother Bai, are you heading down the mountain?"

You Shengnan asked, having noticed Bai Yuan walking towards the base of the mountain with his long saber on his back.

"Accepted a few bounties."

Bai Yuan smiled faintly.

A look of admiration appeared on You Shengnan’s face, but she still tried to earnestly persuade him. "Junior Brother Bai, you’re a True Disciple now. You don’t have to struggle to accumulate contribution points. It’s not worth it. You should just stay on the mountain and focus on your cultivation."

The Inner Sect Disciples of the Divine Mansion Sect were almost never inside the sect. They had to compete for more resources, so they had to take bounties and risk their lives.

But True Disciples were completely different.

The Divine Mansion Sect treated its True Disciples extremely well, providing enough for them to focus wholeheartedly on breaking through to the Entering the Realm. Only after reaching that stage would they need to fight for their own futures again.

You Shengnan knew that even though Bai Yuan could kill an Entry-level Powerhouse, he was actually still stuck at the Blood Refining Pass.

Leaving the mountain at this time undoubtedly added too much risk; it was far less cost-effective than staying on the mountain to practice his martial arts.

Of course, Bai Yuan understood this.

But with his innate talent and comprehension, he couldn’t break through the Entering the Realm even if he went into seclusion for a hundred years.

Only a massive amount of enhancement points and Spirit Medicine would allow him to advance triumphantly.

Bai Yuan’s only support was his own hard work... and, of course, his cheat system.

...

Huanglong Prefecture City was as bustling as ever, showing no hint of the chill of war from the Northern Territory.

Tens of thousands of people passed through the city gates every day.

Two men, Rangers from the look of their clothes who had clearly spent years wandering the Jianghu, blended into the crowd.

"Is this the Divine Mansion Sect?"

"Not exactly."

The two were a pair, one old and one young. The old man was around sixty, while the young man was barely in his early twenties.

If an experienced member of the Jianghu were present, they would have seen at a glance that these two were clearly from the military.

Although the two had disguised themselves well, they couldn’t hide the aura of someone who had crawled out of a pile of corpses.

"Is Dong Wanjun really that strong?"

the young man asked again.

"Very strong."

The old man nodded without the slightest hesitation.

The young man’s eyes showed his surprise. Anyone the old man would call "strong" was bound to be one of the top experts in Ling Province.

To think a place as small as Huanglong Prefecture could produce such a prodigy.

Even shallow waters can raise a flood dragon.

That was right. They weren’t from Huanglong Prefecture, but from Ling Province—or more accurately, the Lingzhou Army.

Ling Province was filled with martial sects, many of which had deep and powerful foundations.

But the true power in Ling Province wasn’t held by those sects; it was the Lingzhou Army.

Over the years, countless thousand-year-old powers had been razed to the ground under the iron hooves of the Lingzhou Army.

The old man himself had personally chopped off the heads of many of those so-called Sect Leaders.

Within the Lingzhou Army, the old man was generally known as General Xuanwu. Although he was only a general without a formal rank, in Ling Province, he was a top-tier figure, second only to the Lord General and the Lord Governor.

The young man chuckled. "A measly Divine Mansion Sect... Elder Fang could suppress it with one hand."

Fang Kui shot the young man a look, his face expressionless.

If this kid weren’t the grandson of the Lord General’s aunt, he would have slapped him to death long ago, given his own temperament.

He hated talkative people the most.

Of course, only a handful of people in all of Ling Province knew that the boy was actually the Lord General’s illegitimate son.

"You’d best behave yourself."

Fang Kui said lightly.

Although the Divine Mansion Sect was located in a remote corner, its strength was in no way inferior to those major sects in Ling Province.

Sect Leader Murong Tian and that Thousand-Handed Butcher were exceptionally rare experts.

If the boy got himself slapped to death, not only would he get splattered with blood, but he would also inevitably get an earful from the Lord General.

That Lord General of the Lingzhou Army had a terrible temper.

Everywhere he marched his army, he would sow some seeds, earning him the title of a sowing machine.

With the stamina of a Martial Artist, there is only over-plowed land, never an exhausted ox.

Over the decades, the Lord General had so many illegitimate children that he himself couldn’t keep count. However, only those with outstanding innate talent, like the young man before him, would be acknowledged. Then, one of the Lord General’s relatives would have the "joy" of becoming a father.

Don’t be fooled by the Lord General’s large and thriving family; more than half of them were his illegitimate children.

Fang Kui had discussed this with several other old generals of the Lingzhou Army.

They all agreed that the Lord General must have learned the methods of the Miao Race from the Profound Sun Southern Border.

Raising Gu...

The young man beside him was named Lu Yu.

He was a clever one. Unlike the previous few illegitimate sons who hadn’t even made it through the gates of the General’s Mansion, he hadn’t rushed off to claim his kinship the moment he learned his father was the Lord General who ruled Ling Province with an iron fist.

Instead, knowing full well that his biological father was the man he called "uncle," he had patiently endured and practiced his martial arts until he became a Blood Refining Martial Master, only then showing up at their door.

You could say he had some depth.

Lu Yu, however, remained grinning cheekily, not bothered in the slightest.

He and General Xuanwu, Fang Kui, hadn’t come to Huanglong Prefecture for sightseeing, but specifically for the Divine Mansion Sect.

To be precise, they were here for a treasure within the Divine Mansion Sect.

The Founding Ancestor of the Divine Mansion Sect was quite the prodigy himself.

The Founding Ancestor, who had hidden away on Shenfu Mountain chopping firewood for ten years, hadn’t originally been anything special. Though his aptitude was decent, it was nowhere near as dazzlingly brilliant as it became after his great enlightenment.

The world believed the Founding Ancestor had suddenly had a breakthrough in understanding.

But the Lord General suspected he must have obtained some kind of heaven-defying fortuitous encounter.

Shenfu Mountain had existed in Huanglong Prefecture for countless ages.

A legend had always circulated about the mountain: that it was once an Immortal Cave Mansion, which is how it came to be called Shenfu, or "Divine Mansion."

The Lord General then happened to hear a secret piece of royal history from a friend in the Capital Court, and it happened to match the Divine Mansion legend.

That was why he sent Fang Kui and Lu Yu to investigate.

The Lord General was counting on that legendary Immortal Cave Mansion to help him advance to the next level.

Fang Kui was an old general who had fought on battlefields for decades. The more people he killed, the less he believed in the existence of any immortals.

’An Immortal Cave Mansion? It’s nothing more than the deluded fantasy of ignorant peasants.’

’No different from those Alchemists in the Court who concoct poison pills and throw the government into chaos.’

’There are still too many fools in Xuan Yang. Otherwise, how could the Celestial Heart Sect have had such an easy time spreading its teachings?’

He really had no interest in staying in Huanglong Prefecture for long.

He would rather spend the time in the Northern Territory killing a few more of those Celestial Heart Sect barbarians.

Compared to Fang Kui’s complete lack of enthusiasm, Lu Yu was far more interested. He whistled from time to time, causing more than a few young wives to look back at him.

...

It was late night again.

The mountain forest was heavy with moisture at night, and Bai Yuan’s clothes clung to his body.

This world, it seemed, lacked the kind of Cultivation Technique he’d read about in the novels of his past life—the kind that let you use True Qi to steam your clothes dry.

He’d heard from Xiongshan that Sect Leader Murong Tian required ten maids to attend him when he bathed. If such a technique truly existed, he probably wouldn’t need that many.

Bai Yuan felt he was a model soldier.

He fought people when there were battles to be fought, and killed demons when there was nothing else to do. There was no need to worry about him causing chaos with his martial arts after retiring from the battlefield.

Slaying demons wasn’t the most efficient method, but its advantage was its sustainability.

He had the Ten Thousand Demons Painting, which gave him more confidence when it came to killing demons.

Besides, demons who had gained sentience were mostly free-spirited and undisciplined, with no organization to speak of. So he didn’t have to worry about killing a young one and attracting an old one—not like with humans, who came with too much karma.

He’d heard the Celestial Heart Sect had managed to naturalize tens of thousands of demons in the Northern Plains, and he had no idea how they’d done it.

He had already converted the Cultivation Techniques from Old Dong’s private stash into text on his status panel.

How could he upgrade "Mountain Return" to Legendary?

It was actually simple: he just had to create another saber technique of the same grade as "Mountain Return." It was similar to a match-three game from his previous life.

Old Dong had many Cultivation Techniques, but most of them were unorthodox styles, and he didn’t have a single saber manual.

Bai Yuan planned to earn enhancement points to upgrade the skills on his panel while also killing demons to save up enough contribution points for a chance to visit Dubhe Pavilion and see if he could find a saber manual.

He wasn’t the type who liked to stir up trouble; he just wanted to lie low and grind peacefully.

He descended from the mountain forest.

He returned to the Divine Mansion Sect, following a familiar path.

Ma Dingjun, Cheng Li, and Li Ting hadn’t stayed in his courtyard for long, choosing instead to start as servant disciples.

They had come to the Divine Mansion Sect to grow stronger, not to enjoy a comfortable life.

If a Martial Artist wanted to become stronger, they had to fight for it themselves.

Otherwise, blindly relying on handouts would only turn them into embroidered pillows.

Of course, with Bai Yuan’s influence as a True Disciple, the Stewards wouldn’t give the three of them too much trouble. At the very least, they wouldn’t have to waste their time on menial chores like the other servant disciples.

Before Bai Yuan even stepped through the door, he saw the lamplight glowing inside his house.

Sister Qiao was clearly waiting for him.

But in the next instant, the smile on his lips suddenly froze.

Because in the courtyard, aside from Sister Qiao, there was another person.

Just then, a familiar voice suddenly rang out, "Bai, long time no see."