It could be argued that Zhang Long had gotten the easiest and nicest task for his solo mission.
He had been asked to collect taxes from a village - which just so coincidentally happened to be his own village.
This could be said to be less of a job and more of a reward.
Zhang Long was the best among the current batch of Initiates in his division when it came to cultivating speed. Despite being younger than many of them, he was already at the sixth minor realm of Qi Condensation, and it looked like he would be one of the few who would graduate from Initiate without having to wait the full thirty years of service to do so.
Then again, he was kind of getting ahead of himself by already thinking of the Qi Refinement realm.
While it was true that after a breakthrough, usually cultivators would also find their potentials also expanded, being able to progress faster, he was still a good ways away from the tenth and final minor realm of Qi Condensation.
Not to mention that breaking through a major realm to Qi Refinement would be the real test of his cultivation talent, in that it was going to be much harder than ascending a minor realm.
It wasn't like the difference of a few minor realms meant that much at Qi Condensation anyway.
But, Zhang Long had a feeling that he wasn't necessarily being rewarded for his ability to cultivate, but for other softer skills such as when it came to managing his team.
Although Zhang Long had not been given a mission near the sect division and had to travel a bit of a way, in a sense being posted the second furthest away right behind Tang Ze, he had basically been given an extended vacation to go back home during this time.
He was welcomed with great fanfare back in his village.
Tax season was not a happy time for any village, but they were joyful in that the collector was someone they knew.
Unlike in modern times, there was no easy way for the Raswatian Empire to keep track of most people's incomes and tax them through a central authority.
The Imperial Family couldn't do so, and neither could any of the sects.
As such, tax collectors had a bit of leeway in their assessments of how well villages were doing.
Given this, bribery and corruption were usually rampant, not to mention the fact that tax collectors had a habit of skimming a bit off the top from what they collected for their own ends.
As such, people ended up paying far more in taxes than were collected - or so was usually the case.
There was no need to try to sweet-talk or bribe Zhang Long, after all.
He was the son of their village chief, and could be relied upon to overlook many things regarding the village and to overexaggerate some of the hardships they had faced.
While Zhang Long was loyal to his sect, he was more than fine with slightly fudging the numbers to help these people who he'd known ever since he was a child. After all, it wasn't lying, just embellishing things ever so slightly.
Life in the villages was not easy.
While things could go smoothly for several years at a time, there was the risk of monster attacks, calamities, demonic cultivators, and raids from other sects as well. This was in addition to the normal hazards like crop failure due to droughts, floods, or pests.
Given this, he thought that his village more than deserved a break.
Not to mention his 'work' was done in less than three days, leaving him to relax for the rest of his term there.
It was clear that the difference in his treatment and that of Tang Ze was the difference between heaven and earth!
Zhang Long had noted that Tang Ze's placement was rather odd, and as such, had offered to escalate the matter further to Elder He Xuan himself if need be since the prefects seemed to be of little help, though Tang Ze himself had requested that he not do so.
Elder He Xuan wouldn't have cared for the complaint even if they did. He wanted Tang Ze in the sect, yes, but he would likely also view this as a chance for Tang Ze to prove himself and potentially get stronger.
He also couldn't show Tang Ze blatant favoritism, and the prefects were technically not breaking any rules, so in such a situation, why would he intervene?
"Whatever- it's only for a short break of time, how bad can it be?" Tang Ze had said at the that time. "And I don't want to gain a reputation as someone who complains about work like that and then goes bothering the higher-ups about something so simple."
Tang Ze had said that at the time - though right now, he was currently realizing just how bad the job was.
Zhang Long though, was oblivious to what was going on with Tang Ze right now - he only knew that Tang Ze was likely facing some trouble with it, he just didn't know how bad it was.
Tang Ze was someone who deserved a break, Zhang Long felt, given how much he had done until now.
Tang Ze had helped Zhang Long jump up a minor realm, after all, though he himself was still stuck at the Zeroth Realm and was unable to move forward.
There was seemingly nothing that anyone could do for him on that matter.
Zhang Long, when he wasn't cultivating, tried to see if he could find something to help Tang Ze out, though didn't come across anything.
"Young Missy Jin Zhen is here to see Young Master Zhang Long," one of the servants called out as Jin Zhen walked into their house one day.
Zhang Long was sitting in his bedroom on the upper floor, but had heard those words loud and clear. There house wasn't that big, after all.
He did his best not to scoff- so he was 'Young Master' now that he could cultivate? Ah, whatever, it didn't bother him too much.
"Welcome, Jin Zhen, how have you been?" Zhang Long's mother asked.
"I've been well, how have you been?"
"My son's finally home for a while, so I couldn't be better! You're here to see him, aren't you?"
"Yes," Jin Zhen said.
"He's upstairs in his bedroom," his mother continued. "Feel free to go up to visit him - but, while you're there, remember to leave the door open."
Jin Zhen blushed lightly as Zhang Long called out from upstairs, "Mother! I'm not a child anymore! You don't need to impose those kinds of rules!"
His mother rolled her eyes. "I know the two of you aren't children anymore - that's why I'm asking you to keep the door open, after all. It wouldn't be a problem if the two of you were still kids." She sighed. "Ah, it feels like just yesterday when the two of you were this tall," she said, motioning to her knee, "and playing husband and wife together! Ah, how swiftly does time pass. Before it feels like I can even blink, the two of you have grown up and are going to get married for real!"
"Well, I'm just here to talk to Zhang Long," Jin Zhen said. "That's all - I just want to talk to him. You don't need to worry."
"I know that might be the only thing that you want," his mother replied. "But men have a way of… shall we say, escalating things? About nine months before Zhang Long was born, all I wanted one night was a back massage from his father but then-"
By this point Zhang Long had run downstairs, face bright red, and yelled out, "MOTHER! What kind of things are you saying to our guests?"
"Oh? Since when is Jin Zhen a guest?" his mother asked, lightly laughing. "She's always dropped by here whenever she wanted. Almost like she's the daughter we never had - and now she's about to become part of the family, isn't she?"
"So then why are you sharing that with her then?" Zhang Long asked through gritted teeth.
Jin Zhen lightly giggled as she made her way upstairs. Zhang Long followed her, and just to spite his mother closed the door.
"How have you been doing?" Zhang Long asked her. He couldn't imagine things were going easy for her after what those Diamond Dust idiots did. In the letters she sent him, she had said she was doing fine, but it was another thing to ask in person.
"I'm fine," Jin Zhen said reassuringly, catching onto what he was trying to ask. However, there seemed to be more to her visit than just catching up.
Their families were hoping to plan an official wedding sometime soon, though the official engagement would have to take place first.
Zhang Long would've hoped to have waited a bit longer - until he was past the rank of Initiate at the very least, though as his father reminded him, that could very well take several years.
"And she can't wait forever for you, remember that," he had told Zhang Long.
Zhang Long had hoped that he could delay things - not because he didn't want to get married, but because he felt he would be more stable if he could become a regular member of the sect rather than an Initiate.
Regular members had, well, more regular working hours and weren't sent outside the sect as much. They also got certain privileges he thought were quite relevant.
Children of regular sect members, once they became of age, could automatically join the sect without having to take the entrance test and without paying said fee.
It was too early to plan for children, despite what his mother was insinuating, but it would've put his mind slightly at ease if he moved up from Initiate before the wedding.
Still, even he couldn't deny the fact that at the speed he was going at, it might very well be another decade before he could ascend to Qi Refinement.
However, Jin Zhen wasn't here to talk about anything like that today.
"I was wondering - when would you and the other members of your squad be free?" Jin Zhen asked.
"I don't know - might be a while until we can get together again, why?" Zhang Long asked.
Jin Zhen's next words, though they sounded innocent enough, made Zhang Long sweat bullets in response to hearing them.
"I was thinking of cooking something for all of them as thanks! Especially for Tang Ze! So when do you think would be a good time?" Jin Zhen asked.
These words pierced Zhang Long's heart as if each of them were an arrow.
"Never!" Zhang Long yelled out suddenly, shocking Jin Zhen.
"Eh? What do you mean by 'never?'"
Zhang Long calmed down somewhat and racked his brains to find a way to say what he wanted to say without crushing Jin Zhen's heart.
He also needed to keep his voice down - who knows what kind of conclusions his mother would be jumping to downstairs if he kept on shouting?
"I mean… I would never allow it!" He put on a weak smile that he hoped would be convincing enough. "Your cooking is just so good - I can't possibly share it with anyone else! Isn't that something special only for me?"
Jin Zhen pouted. "Come on now - you're behaving like a spoilt child! Of course I'll cook for you everyday but-"
Zhang Long felt a chill crawl down his spine as she said those words. It was as if Death itself had decided to take up residence in his stomach in anticipation for what was to come.
"-but I want to do something for them too!" Jin Zhen said.
"Ah, well, it's hard to find a moment when we'll be free, and the sect doesn't usually allow women to enter that area so…" Zhang Long tried to think of any excuse possible to spare his friends the tribulation that might befall them if he couldn't.
"I'm sure you'll find a solution," Jin Zhen said. "And I saw the sect rules! I can come so long as it's daytime!"
Jin Zhen hadn't joined the Rising Phoenix Sect yet as her family couldn't really scrounge up the fee needed for the entrance test, not to mention her cultivation wasn't high enough yet to get through the test anyway. However, once Zhang Long made his way up and became a regular member, it would be much easier for her to join him - she might even be able to skip the entrance test altogether if he became a prefect.
But that would have to wait for later.
He had a bigger issue to solve here.
The fate of the world - well, no, it wasn't quite that dramatic - but the fate of his friends (who, to Zhang Long, were his whole world) was at stake here!
"Alright," Zhang Long said, not seeing a plausible reason as of now to deny her request. He would just have to make sure that the others were conveniently absent whenever she happened to drop by.