Chapter 71 - External Mission
Six months passed from that particular day when the secrets of the sect were revealed. There was still some time before the date of the Secret Dimension opening. Yet, at the same time, there wasn’t much left. As a result, there was little time left for future participants to improve as much as possible.
Hei, who had turned 14, and Lian, who would also be 14 shortly, had moved from the fourth stage to the fifth stage, approaching the fifth-stage bottleneck. Thanks to the Explosive Blood Pills, they had managed to speed up their cultivation times significantly. And since they still had the Metal Fortification Pill set aside, they were confident in reaching the sixth stage once they had accumulated enough spirit power.
Hei had finally mastered every move in the snake and spider styles. The last three techniques for the fifth stage were - Snake Whip, Snake Run, Snake Coiling.
Snake Whip was a medium / short-range technique. It consisted of displacing the bones of the shoulders and arms to increase the range of one’s blows, waving their arms as if they were whips.
Snake Run was a movement technique. It consisted mainly of a vertical zig-zag movement. The continuous swaying of the legs together with the rest of the body would make it difficult for the enemy to pinpoint precisely how the user would attack. Unlike Spider Run, Snake Run was more about attacking than avoiding attacks.
Finally, Snake Coiling was a defense technique that consisted of dislocating the bones and joints of one's body with one's spirit power to increase the flexibility of the body. In case of need, the user could roll up to reduce the damage. At the same time, it could be used as an attack move, making it easier to wrap one’s limbs around the enemy, leading to the facilitation of strangulation moves.
Training to master these techniques was very extreme. This time, Hei had to get his mother's poison injected into his body. Although it had been significantly diluted, his bones melted easily and then quickly regenerated thanks to special mixtures.
It was a harrowing cycle that forced Hei to bed for weeks, unable to move. Fortunately, he was somehow able to cultivate while lying down even though the performance wasn’t as good as when performing the meditation lotus position.
Eventually, he reached an adequate level of flexibility to be able to use these techniques in training. With practice, he also came to know how to use them in combat, although he hadn’t tried them against an opponent.
In addition to the spider and snake style techniques, he and Lian also managed to master their weapons intent. Even though they still had to reach the sixth stage, they were now able to infuse their spirit power into their weapons. They had also learned techniques to send aura attacks with their weapons.
Moreover, the sect leader had removed all kinds of prohibitions in the library for the seven younger generation members. With such high stakes, she and the elders decided to bet every available resource on the seven young martial artists who would go to the Secret Dimension.
Hei and Lian, therefore, spent much time at the library, learning various techniques. However, the totality of these wasn’t comparable in effectiveness with their styles taught by Bao Bei. But they still learned them to vary their repertoire of moves. In particular, Hei even made some changes to his techniques, creating variants of the moves taught by his mother.
But it wasn't just their fighting skills that were improved. Their expertise as an alchemist and formation maker also made great strides. Hei was able to produce his pills, and with each new batch, his ability increased dramatically. The same was valid with Lian, who learned to create increasingly complex formations and helped Hei in his work of creating pills. The two, therefore, earned many contribution points that they invested each time in buying rare materials to create even more precious pills.
Yet, despite things going well, the two weren’t completely satisfied. Given the importance of the Secret Dimension, they had to become stronger. But how would they become stronger without opponents to fight with? If they wanted to improve, they had to fight against martial artists who aimed at their lives. However, it wasn’t possible to find that kind of opponent within the sect. Even if they had fought against the elders’ personal disciples, it would have been just a sparring session and not a mortal fight.
Therefore, not seeing any other solution within the sect territories, Hei decided to try with the external missions. Some time ago, during the inner sect structures presentation, the functioning of the external missions had been briefly explained to him. But considering he was still in the second stage at that time, he had left that notion in the corner of his mind. The sect leader herself had told him to wait at least to get to the fourth stage.
So, now that he had reached the fifth stage and was approaching the sixth, he was more than ready to undertake an external mission on behalf of the sect.
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In the building containing the bulletin board where the various missions were posted, two youths were browsing every single task on display. They were Hei and Lian. They were reading the contents of each sheet so that they could choose the most suited to them, and that could help them solve their problem.
And while they were reading, one of the sheets ended up attracting Hei's attention. It was a mission to investigate a series of incidents that had even seen the death of various inner disciples of the sect, including a fifth stage. But it wasn’t the death of a fifth stage spirit apprentice or that there were members of the sect between the victim to attract Hei's attention. It was instead the part where the culprit was said to be very powerful spirit beasts.
The mission was, therefore, concerned with ascertaining whether the rumors were true and stopping the culprit, whether it was a person or spirit beast.
Hei didn’t find any disgust in reading that some spirit beasts could be responsible for a series of killings of martial artists and civilians. Considering that humans hunted animals and spirit beasts without giving themselves too much trouble, it wasn’t strange if they responded equally wildly.
However, even if he understood it, he couldn’t allow that some spirit beasts were killing innocent human beings. As long as they were provoked, it was okay, but attacking unarmed civilian settlements wasn’t right. It wasn’t a moral matter, but only because it would have given a bad image of the spirit beasts. Instead of intelligent beings at the same level as humans or demons, they would be depicted as bloodthirsty beasts.
He then decided to accept the mission. If possible, he would make them change their minds, but if they didn’t want to listen, then he would have no choice but to kill them. Even though he considered spirit beasts with respect and tried to protect them, he didn’t mean that he wouldn’t punish those who went down the wrong path. As he has no problem in killing humans, there would be no problem in killing the spirit beasts that tried to oppose his goal.
Hei wasn’t a saint or a savior of spirit beasts. He wanted to create a safe place for them, but that was it. The world of spirit beasts was violent, and it was normal for them to kill each other to survive. He and his family had also killed many living beings to eat them.
But, if he could accept the killing because of an inevitable need such as hunger, he couldn’t accept those who were driven by futile reasons. For example, those moved by the thirst for blood or the taste to make others suffer. So if he found that the culprits had done so because they had been provoked, he wouldn’t punish them. The fact that humans had died was no different from the death of animals or spirit beasts. Why were humans more important?
"Lian, what do you say? Is this mission good for you?” Hei asked, handing the paper to Lian.
Lian looked briefly at the contents of the mission and answered,
"As long as it's right for you. I will always be behind you, anyway. "
At the girl's words, Hei put a hand on her head and rubbed her hair. Then he took the sheet in his hands and approached the attendant to record the names of those who accepted the missions on display.
"Good morning, we would like to take this mission," Hei said.
"Give me the paper and tell me your names so that I can register you and the mission." The attendant replied without caring too much about those in front of him.
But when he read the contents of the mission, his forehead frowned. This mission had indeed become a hot topic of conversation in the sect among the younger generation. Several fourth stages and even a fifth stage had died, and all they had was only rumors that some spirit beasts were the culprits. Only from this, one could perceive the danger of the mission.
"Number one in the inner members ranking, Hei. Number two in the inner members ranking, Lian."
Hei's voice brought the attendant back from his thoughts. The man was stunned to hear the names of the most promising pair from the younger generation. However, precisely because it was the number one and number two that he hesitated.
"This is a mission that requires at least a fifth stage. It is also advisable to take it as a group rather than just the two of you." The attendant tried to find excuses to dissuade the two youths while he signaled to a nearby colleague to call the sect leader.
"There are no problems, both Lian and I are in the fifth stage. Besides, I guess you know I'm a beast tamer. Therefore, I don't need to form a group of martial artists. Bringing my spirit beast will be more than enough."
It was true. Hei's two little sisters were comparable to two fifth stage spirit apprentice. He also had in mind to bring Shui, who had long stayed in the bottleneck to the second level. Hei thought that in this mission, maybe Shui could finally advance. In the same way, he thought to bring Mi. Although she was young and unfit for combat, her small size and the fact that she wasn’t powerful made her ideal to use as a scout without arousing suspicion.
As for the other spirit animals that dwelt near his spiderweb house, he didn't want to have them fight for the moment. They had had a difficult time in the past, and he wanted them to relax as much as possible.
Meanwhile, the colleague of the attendant had sent the message to the sect leader, who responded briefly to let them take the mission.
The sect leader knew in fact that there was no way that Hei and Lian would have risked dying. Furthermore, it was a perfect opportunity to complete the mission successfully and train the two youths for the opening of the Secret Dimension.
After receiving confirmation from the sect leader, the employee could only nod and fill out the request with the data of the two young martial artists. He then gave them two tokens engraved with the sect symbol.
"These tokens are given to our members out for external missions. In case of problems, you can show these to confirm your membership in the sect. Remember not to lose them and be careful anyway, even if you are shown a similar token. It isn’t uncommon to find someone who claims to be a sect member using these. Therefore, if possible, recover the tokens of our fallen comrades."
"Got it. If we find the tokens, we will take and bring them back to the sect."
With the officiality from the sect, Hei and Lian came out of there and returned to the spiderweb house. They had to prepare for the mission and communicate that they would be away for a while and that they would also bring Shui and Mi with them. Fortunately, with the two second-level elephants protecting them, the other spirit beasts didn’t have to fear for their safety during Hei and his family’s absence.