The three Squad Leaders looked over to their team mates and seeing them all ready, they nodded their heads. Jack put the Mask on his face again as he said, “Neetute märk, jälita!” As he said that, he pointed towards a direction and said, “They are approximately 400 kilometers in that direction.” The three squads put on a serious face and the previous chatting and joking atmosphere disappeared completely.

From each squad, a person took out a Transportation Artefact and all of their Squad Members boarded their respective Artefacts. Seeing that everyone were ready to go, Jack also took out an Artefact. While other’s Transportation Artefacts were designed to accommodate 1 to 10 people, Jack’s Transportation Artefact was a little black cloud. Seeing the cloud, everyone’s eyes flickered as they recognized the little cloud.

It was a Top Tier Heaven Rank Transportation Artefact that specialized in speed. These Artefacts belonged to the set that was given to every Hidden Dragon like Jack. Dragon Cross was a Sect that had existed for several hundreds millions of years and over the years, it’s foundation was extremely rock solid.

When it was founded all those years ago, it was already a Sect that no one dared to look down upon. The Founder of the Sect Fang Zhi was someone that had a very mysterious past and origins but he had Heaven defying Talent and his resources were unfathomable as well. He had single handedly built the Sect from scratch into a major power in less than a century.

He made strict rules and an infrastructure to the Sect that actually hadn’t been changed much from the founding of the Sect until now.

Currently, Dragon Cross had 4 Halls and 3 “Dragons”: Artefact Hall, Medicine Hall, Merchant Hall and Enforcement Hall.

Artefact Hall was the Hall that forged Artefacts on custom orders, for the Sect and for sale.

Medicine Hall was compromised of two parts: Pill Hall and Healing Hall. Pill Hall was in charge of making all of the Pills for cultivating, healing or just tempering. Healing Hall however, was compromised of people that specialized in Healing Arts. Healers were actually very respected because pills couldn’t always help. Also, they had a very intricate understanding of the body, so they could help heal meridian deviations, very serious wounds that pills were useless against or deal with poisons.

The Merchant Hall dealt with everything related to money. They took custom orders for Artificers or Alchemists, sold Pills or Artefacts, bought raw materials needed. Basically, if it had anything to do with money, Merchant Hall dealt with it.

The Enforcement Hall had the most intricate infrastructure of the four. The one Hall was divided into three different Factions that dealt with different things. The three Factions were Hidden Dragon, Napping Dragon and Roaming Dragon.

Napping Dragon was the “Defensive Dragon”, their main job was to protect their own territory, keep order and protect their merchandise when it was being traded. They also dealt with all the fights between Sect members and other Factions/Halls.

Roaming Dragon was the “Offensive Dragon”, their main job was to accomplish missions outside the Sect. Tracking down deserters or criminals of the Sect, accomplish missions that were asked of Dragon Cross that had something to do with either eradicating a power or protecting someone. They were also the main force in situations when someone was picking a fight with Dragon Cross or killed their disciples.

The last Faction was the “Hidden Dragon”, the most mysterious and versatile of the three Factions inside the Enforcement Hall. They were in charge of finding out what happened to the killed or disappeared disciples and in charge of gathering information over all. They also carried out the investigations when they got a complaint about someone from Dragon Cross that was breaking the Sect Rules.

They operated both inside the Sect and outside the Sect. Most of the people from the Hidden Dragon were actually unknown as some were dealing with delicate situations that was like walking on a tight rope above a sea of swords and spears. Also, for Hidden Dragon members, there were no restricted areas except the Founders private areas. Since Hidden Dragon members were the ones that always extended their necks out, their equipment and status was also several levels higher than Napping or Roaming Dragons.

The best example was Jack himself as disciples are divided into three “Generations”.

Third Generation was compromised of people that were under First Tribulation the Empyrean Tribulation.

Second Generation compromised of people that were under Second Tribulation aka Paragon Tribulation.

The First Generation was compromised of people that had passed the Second Tribulation.

Third Generation was considered as usual new disciples or Outer Sect Disciples and the Second Generation were the Real Disciples. Those that were unable to pass the Empyrean Tribulation usually took mediocre jobs that didn’t carry much danger but did not have high rewards either.

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First Generation Disciples were considered as Elders and they were the ones that had the most status in the Halls.

They were also the ones that were in charge of looking after the Second and Third Generation to see whether there were some good seedlings to be developed. They were also in charge of teaching the Disciples.

Those that had passed the Third Tribulation, Origin Tribulation, were the true Core of Dragon Cross. They usually stayed in seclusion on Floating Dragon, a Fortress type Artefact that floated above the Headquarters of Dragon Cross. They were the Dao Reserve that only made an appearance when the Sect was truly in dire straits and had no other way out. Over the years, the Dao Reserve had grown to more than a thousand people and this was actually what made every other Sect feel very reluctant to start a fight with Dragon Cross.

However, greed has no rationality and there have been Alliances made against Dragon Cross in the past. However, Dragon Cross still stands while all those Sects and Alliances exist no more. Usually, Floating Dragon was a restricted area where only Origin Realm experts could enter or their direct disciples.

However, this restriction didn’t exist for the members of Hidden Dragon. This also applied to Jack, who was a member of Hidden Dragon. He could freely use the cultivation areas that were on Floating Dragon and the Artefacts he had surpassed even the Second Generation Disciples. However, this had been so from the beginning, the higher the risk, the better the they are armed.

Hidden Dragon was the most dangerous department in Dragon Cross, so their remuneration for placing themselves in danger like that was also very compensating.

The Defensive Artefact Jack had was an Armour Set Type Artefact of Low Earth Rank. This armour came in four parts and he had actually obtained two parts of the set, making it a Low Earth Rank Artefact. If he obtain the last two parts as well, it would jump to become a Top Tier Heaven Rank Armour Set. The whole armour set cost a whooping 20 000 000 Contribution points. This number scared away most people that eyed this armour set in itself.

However, since Jack had been carrying out one dangerous mission after another, he had been able to obtain 2 of the four parts of the set. The main reason he could even afford the two parts of the set was because:

1st He was a member of Hidden Dragon and got a 25% discount on all Artefacts and Pills.

2nd The rewards from Hidden Dragon missions was actually very generous.

Also, since over time he had also had a lot of fights, he had collected mountains of Artefacts, Arts and Pills he couldn’t use. He had auctioned off the better ones for a higher price and sold the worse ones directly to the Halls themselves. He basically sold off everything that he didn’t need or couldn’t use.

Besides the Armour and the Scythe he used, most of the things he had were given to him by Hidden Dragon and he couldn’t sell them. The Cloud was one of these things and he also had no intention of selling it either even if he could.

After Jack took the lead on his little black cloud, the three squads followed behind in full alert and ready for action. It didn’t take long for them to cross the distance and reach the Sheng Clan’s Headquarters. When they reached outside the City that was lorded over by the Sheng Clan, Jack signalled for everyone to stop. He pointed at the city and said, “That is Sheng Clan’s Headquarters.”

After saying so, the three Squad Leaders nodded their heads as they did a gesture. Following the gesture, the three Squads flew to surround the city and strange runes started flickering around them as they closed their eyes and concentrated. What was odd was that no one noticed the three groups of five standing at the edges of the city and setting up a formation. After a minute of casting, three pillars of light simultaneously flew into the centre of the city in an arc and when the three beams of light met, a curtain of light started spreading from the collision point and in a few second it turned into a dome of light that completely entrapped the whole city within.

The whole city suddenly came to life as all the cultivators flew to the air to confront the enemy. Each of the three squads left one person behind to maintain the formation while the rest flew forward.

After a few moments, a suffocating aura spread out to cover the city as a cold snort echoed out, “Who dares to act so arrogantly in my Sheng City?!” Following the sentence, thirty people flew to the air. They were all the Empyrean Realm cultivators that the Sheng Clan had. The cold snort came from the Old Ancestor that was even an Early Stage Empyrean Emperor.

As the old man tried to pressure them with his aura, he was soon shocked to see that none of the three group looked even fazed by his aura. The handsome young man stepped forward and said with a smile, “We are from Dragon Cross and we have some questions regarding your sudden rise to power and the disappearance of our Sect’s Disciples.” To the end, the smile never left his face. Hearing the words “Dragon Cross” the old man’s face fell as he seemed to realize that this was bad.

He immediately snorted, “Dragon Cross, never heard of it. Also, I have no idea of your Sect’s Disciples disappearing.” The old man from the Sheng Clan tried to play the innocent, however, the young man just asked, “Are you sure of that? If it comes to light that you truly have something to do with their disappearance….”

Even though the sentence was incomplete, from the disappeared smile, it was evident what the consequences were. The old man felt cold sweat run down his spine as he said with “certainty”, “Hmph, my Sheng Clan has nothing to with it.” Hearing this, the young man turned towards Jack, that was standing outside of the Formation and said in a loud voice, “Elder Jack, I ask for you to use “Brand Location” to make sure and free the Sheng Clan of suspicion.” Hearing this, Jack just sighed.

Although his status was the same as an Elder, he did not like hearing that word. Also, he had a general understanding of the young man’s temperament and he knew that he just wanted to slap the Sheng Clan’s Old Ancestor in the face. This was also justification needed so that others won’t start troubling Dragon Cross with them being too arrogant or something.

Although Dragon Cross didn’t care about that, less trouble was less trouble. Jack just closed his eyes as he said, “Brand Location!” As he said those words, a beam of light flew out from all the Artefacts, Pills, Arts that held the Dragon Cross Branding.