The two of them weren’t from the Hua Family, so they didn’t have any Contribution Tokens. They came from the Li Sect of the Southern Islands. Just like the Qing Republic that Di had told me about, the biggest faction wasn’t the governing body, but the various Clans and Sects that had much firmer foundations. They didn’t officially involve themselves with politics, but underneath the surface, they were the ones who truly controlled the nation.

There were many different currencies throughout the world. Even within a single country, there would be plenty of types to choose from. What they gave me was a handful of tiny red marbles. Fifteen Fire Beads, each one containing compressed Qi and worth about a single Contribution Point.

Of course, there was also something else that I obtained from that little treatment. Even though it was ‘dead’, the entire fucking room was drenched in black and yellow slime. I thought it was disgusting, but Xiaotong told me “Levi, let me out so that I can eat! It smells so delicious!”

I muttered “Ugh, wait a second, you don’t have a nose or tongue, so how the hell would you even be able to… No never mind, go ahead and enjoy yourself! It’d take you forever to clean this place up by yourself though, so you’re going to have to share. Oi, ya damn lazy cat! Stop pretending to be asleep and get to work!” Between the cockroach, kitten and flying demonic skull, it still took close to an hour. While I was waiting for them to fix things up, I went out of the office and walked over to a few patients.

There was a guy with brown pill bugs all over his body, a woman with giant pink fleas infesting her flesh, and a family of five. The group of people turned out to be a single little boy who was being haunted by four human-looking Unranked Spirits. Once I told him what the appearances of the ghosts were like, he thanked me and gave me a single Contribution Point Token before leaving. I didn’t even need to do anything.

As for the other two… Well, it turned out that there were a lot of uses for a Rank-F Fiery Cockroach Elemental. Neither of them were very excited to watch the critter crawling around and seemingly eating something off of their skin. However, my methods weren’t that strange. There were plenty of doctors who used insects to remove parasitic Beasts from their patients. It was a pretty common practice and even if they couldn’t ‘see’ the things that were hurting them, they could still sense that their Qi was being drained. After the sensation was gone, most cultivators would immediately be able to tell that they were feeling better.

Unfortunately, the payments that I received would often be rather small. Although, it was all a matter of perspective I guess? One to five Contribution Points was the typical price, but I also rarely had to do that much. You would be amazed at how many people had Unranked bugs crawling on their skin. Weak Spirits were rarely able to survive inside of someone’s body, so most problems could be solved pretty easily.

Anyway, I only worked for three hours and made a total of eighteen Contribution Points, plus the fifteen Fire Beads. Spirit Cat died though… Apparently Spirits are a lot like Humans. If they try to absorb and condense Qi too quickly, they literally explode. I was going to give it a name, but well, I’m glad I didn’t become too attached to the poor ghost-pussy.

My second day in Hua Jiang Palace seemed a lot less hectic than the first. Even though I actually did a lot more stuff, without Di there, I didn’t feel that same overbearing pressure. I could work at my own pace and enjoy myself as much as I wanted.

Mei was able to collect plenty of cum and we slept together again. My penis never went inside of her vagina or asshole, but I was starting to wonder if that really made a difference. Every day passed rather peacefully… Okay, that’s a lie.

There was always some kind of crazy bullshit going on during my job as a Shaman. Not only that, but my training focused around pushing my muscles, bones and skin to the limit. Cultivation was mostly Mei sucking on my dick, while I ate her out. Well, we also had a lot of really awesome meals. Like, I thought that normal sushi, sashimi and steamed shellfish was delicious already, but Rank-G was way better than Unranked. It wasn’t too expensive, only about ten Contribution Points for a Silvertail Lobster. Now, that might seem excessive, but those fuckers are like three feet long and a hundred pounds of meat. We had a freezer, so one of them could last the two of us a week or more.

Obviously, we had plenty of other choices as well. Rank-F Beasts were a bit out of my price range though. It’s not like I couldn’t afford to splurge sometimes, but one of my necessities was Rank-F Herbal massage oil. One bottle was a hundred Contribution Points and it only lasted a single week at most.

People usually payed me in CP Tokens, but I had collected plenty of other random shit over the months before my birthday. My fortune included a hundred Contribution Points, thirty-five Aqua Beads, forty Fire Beads, five gold coins and a magical bag to put stuff in.

A Rank-F Extradimensional Pouch was basically just a small leather purse, with loads of weird symbols embroidered into the material. The one I had was covered by black fur, so it didn’t look that special, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I was honestly amazed that such a tiny thing could fit a whole cubic meter inside. It was super weird at first, though it wasn’t that impressive when I compared it to other shit.

My little bag was kind of awkward in some ways. I couldn’t reach the bottom of it with my child-like arms, so I had to tip it over and struggle to grab what I was looking for. The hole didn’t stretch much and it was heavy as hell once I started filling it up. It wouldn’t be practical to use all of the space.

For a while I regretted wasting my money on it when I could get a normal backpack for free, but I couldn’t help but think about the chance that I might need it. What if I randomly found a small mountain of gold coins or whatever? Maybe a bunch of magic rings or something? It would be better to have the extra space in case of an emergency! There wasn’t any preservation effect though. Compared to Di’s ring, it was garbage. Hell, even the hundreds of storage chests that he owned were better, but he had centuries to accrue his fortune. I had only just begun my life as a Shaman.

I’m not quite sure if it would be considered as an ‘item’ belonging to me or my second Spirit Companion, but my most valuable object gained in all of that time was definitely the Fiery Cockroach Elemental. It was more useful than any of the random junk I found around Di’s office. I wasn’t as kind-hearted as the old man when it came to Spirits… Well, the ghosts and monsters were usually assholes or mindless parasites in the first place. Exterminating them was the same as saving their victim’s life or sanity.

There were loads of cases where all I needed to do was communicate with a Spirit that was haunting a person. When they were still Unranked, they sometimes preserved their memories. It wasn’t until they reached Rank-G that they would have to give up their former identity to become something new, but that could take decades or centuries. Basically, being a medium was a big part of Shamanism. It was kind of like translating from insane gibberish or the babbling of someone with late-stage dementia, into actual sentences. Of course, if I couldn’t figure out what the hell they were trying to say, I would just literally parrot the stupid phantoms.

I mean, there was an Exorcist a few doors down from my clinic but… Reputation is important. That old woman was a total psycho and it was well known that she cared more about exterminating Spirits than helping anyone. I don’t even know how many of her ‘patients’ died from her carelessness over the hundred years that she had been in business. Not to mention the fact that she charged way too much for even the simplest services. On the other hand, I had managed to ‘heal’ at least a thousand people in only a few months.

I had a handful of repeat customers too. Li Xiu Ying was a ‘special’ patient. My nickname for her was originally ‘Cockroach Lady’, but that swiftly changed. It seemed like every goddamn week she showed up with a different type of weird-ass curse.

Okay, I’ll tell you about our second meeting. The moment she entered the office, I saw her face and asked “Shit, did I miss something last time? I took the source of your problems away and thought I got rid of all the roaches…”

Next