CHAPTER

8

The Mission Hall

I

Under Tian Jin’s control, the magical cloud landed on the grass beside a large stone square at the base of a large mountain. Not too far away from them was a massive arched gate that that marked the entrance of the residential area of the Outer Court, which took up the entire mountain in front of them. Beyond the gate was a wide stone stairway that led up the mountain, winding its way around it.

This was where they had met up to leave for the mission.

Hao Zhen felt as if that had been months, if not years, ago, even though it hadn’t even been a week. So much had changed since the day he had left, he didn’t even know where to start. As he looked around the square, at the other outer disciples walking around, going about their business, he couldn’t help but think that not even a week ago, he had been just like them, his only concern being his lack of progress in his cultivation.

Maybe someone, in his place, would rather not have known what he did now. Maybe they’d have preferred the comfort of ignorance over the awareness of knowledge. But he wasn’t someone else, and as burdensome as the revelations of the last few days had been, he was, in a way, glad for them. As far as he was concerned, he had just effectively regained his free will, and to him, that was worth virtually any price.

Tian Jin motioned for them to descend from the magical cloud, and they did so—Duo Lan gracefully leaping off, Hao Zhen simply jumping down. Tian Jin got down after them, and moments later, the magical cloud started flowing into his sleeves. Once it had completely disappeared, Tian Jin reached into his sleeve and produced from it a red bracelet, which he handed to Hao Zhen, who stored it inside Ke Li’s spatial ring.

With that, it was time to go to the Mission Hall.

Tian Jin at the lead, the three of them began making their way toward the center of the Outer Court, where most of its halls were, the Mission Hall among them.

As they walked through the sect, Hao Zhen couldn’t help but look at it with new eyes, watching the lofty mountain peaks around them and the abundance of green. The stone pathway they were walking on was wide enough for several people to walk side by side. To the sides of the pathways was grass, with some trees and shrubs some distance away.

Everywhere he looked, the grass was neatly trimmed, and the trees and plants were perfectly maintained. Even though the Blazing Light Sect was merely a red-grade sect, and not even a particularly powerful one at that, it was still wealthy enough to have enough servants to keep the entire territory of the sect in a perfect state, resulting in pleasant, if not idyllic, sights.

Sects were magical organizations comprised of cultivators, and to a cultivator, their sect was their home, their family, and pretty much their entire life. Sects shared many similarities with the churches from Earth, with members of a sect living a life that was similar in many ways to clergymen, mostly in the sense of how much of their life revolved around the organization they belonged to.

Before regaining his memories, Hao Zhen had never given the existence of sects much thought, simply taking it for granted, but now he viewed magical organizations, and the magical world as a whole, in a different light.

The magical world obeyed, for the most part, the law of the jungle, in which power meant everything and might was right, and cultivators, for the most part, lived in anarchy. As far as he knew, there didn’t exist some kind of central power; there were no laws or rules. Inside a sect, on the other hand, things were different. There were rules and regulations, and as such, cultivators didn’t need to live every moment in fear of being killed or robbed by others at any moment. Even in the outside world, being a member of a sect was advantageous, as their ties to a magical organization acted as a form of deterrence.

That was, however, only in theory.

In practice, Hao Zhen doubted the Blazing Light Sect would do anything if he or one of the other outer disciples was killed by a member of a different organization when outside the sect. Even inside the sect, they weren’t all that safe, the situation with Du Qing being a prime example of that. If sects in this world were anything like they were in cultivation novels, and from the looks of it that was shaping out to be the case, then they were cesspools of corruption and nepotism.

Nevertheless, even with all those problems, Hao Zhen believed that being a member of a sect was still much better than being a loose cultivator; otherwise, he’d have seriously considered not returning to the sect at all. Ultimately, even if sects weren’t all that safe, not being a member of a sect was much more dangerous, and at least in a sect, there was a semblance of order and peace, even if it was paper-thin.

Eventually, the three of them arrived at a large square dozens of times larger than the one in front of the residential area. This square sat at the center of the Outer Court, acting as a central hub of sorts, and on it were several large buildings, most of them similar in appearance and construction: mostly made out of wood, with wooden posts, beams, and joists making up for their framework.

Their destination, the Mission Hall, was one of the biggest buildings in the square: a large, two-story building complex. It also appeared to be the building with the highest amount of traffic, with a good number of disciples milling about near it, and a constant flux of people entering and leaving it.

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The Blazing Light Sect, and as far Hao Zhen knew, virtually every sect, was divided into three courts. This division was both physical and hierarchical. In the Outer Court lived the weakest, least important members of the sect, the outer disciples and outer elders, and their role in the organization essentially boiled down to doing whatever the members of the other courts couldn’t be bothered to do in the form of missions.

The Inner Court, on the other hand, comprised the sect’s main fighting force, and it was where most of the resources of the sect were concentrated. Its members, the inner disciples and elders, enjoyed positions of privilege and authority. Also part of the Inner Court were the prime elders, who were special inner elders; the prime disciples, who were the apprentices of the prime elders; and the sect leader. And then there was the Core Court. Hao Zhen didn’t know much about it, but it was supposedly where the protectors of the sect, who were elders that no longer participated in the management of the sect, lived together with their apprentices, who were called core disciples.

The halls of a sect were bodies that existed to manage specific aspects of the sect, and because of that, each court usually had their own halls. The Mission Hall which they were headed to was actually the Outer Mission Hall, and in the inner court, there was the Inner Mission Hall, though Hao Zhen wasn’t certain whether there was a Core Mission Hall. The divisions, on the other hand, were dedicated to different aspects of cultivation and were divorced from the three courts, even if all of their members also held a position in one of the courts.

“We’re here,” Tian Jin said, his eyes on the building in front of them.

Hao Zhen stared at the Mission Hall, and his heart, which had already been beating faster than normal as his anxiety built up the closer they got to their destination, started hammering against his chest. Glancing at Tian Jin and Duo Lan, he saw that they looked somewhat tense, but not nearly as anxious, so either they were very good at hiding what they were feeling or they simply didn’t think that this was that much of a deal. Hao Zhen really hoped that he was just overreacting.

Together, they stepped through the doors of the Mission Hall.

The inside of the building was large and filled with outer disciples. Opposite the door, on the far end of the room, was a large table, behind which a young woman wearing the clothes of an outer disciple sat on a chair, a bored look on her face. The three of them made their way over to her.

As they approached, the girl looked up, and her gaze lingered on Tian Jin and Duo Lan for a moment, her eyes widening slightly in recognition before she looked away.

“We’ve completed our mission,” Tian Jin said without preamble and handed the girl a jade slip. A week ago, they had all received a jade slip informing them of the mission they had been assigned and their details. Hao Zhen and Duo Lan followed suit, setting the jade slips they had received down on the table.

There was a long-term mission outer disciples could take to work in the Mission Hall and pretty much do the work of the Mission Hall elders for them, which was why it was an outer disciple, and not an outer elder, whom they were giving their mission report to. From what Hao Zhen had heard, working in the Mission Hall paid well, so there was quite a lot of competition for the position when it became available.

The female disciple took the jade slips into her hands one by one, briefly closing her eyes each time, most likely to view their contents and certify that everything was in order.

Next, the three of them placed on the table the deathpetal orchids and the shadowseeker daffodils they had collected, as well as the other magical plants they had found. The girl stared dumbly at the massive pile of magical herbs Duo Lan had removed from her spatial ring.

“We’d also like to exchange the other magical plants for contribution points,” Duo Lan said, almost like a command. Most of the time she spoke as if she was ordering you around, now that Hao Zhen thought about it. He wondered what her life had been like before she joined the sect.

Spiritual stones were the main currency used by cultivators, but inside a sect, contribution points were just as, if not more, important. Every time a member of the sect completed a mission, even if it was one that had been assigned to them, they’d always receive a certain number of contribution points in addition to other rewards. Contribution points could then be exchanged in the Exchange Pavilion—a building annexed to the Mission Hall—for all sorts of things, such as spiritual stones, pills, magical artifacts, and cultivation methods.

The girl collected each of the magical plants one by one, storing them inside a spatial ring, then asked for their identity tokens: small jade medallions that functioned similarly to jade slips. She then held each token in her hand for a moment, pressing them against another medallion, before returning them.

Receiving his identity token back, Hao Zhen channeled his spiritual power into it, and in his mind’s eye saw a counter with his contribution points, which had almost doubled.

The outer disciple then produced three separate small stacks of spiritual stones from her spatial ring, the other reward for the mission, and handed them over.

When she realized that they weren’t leaving, but instead staying put, she gave them a look of confusion.

“Actually,” Tian Jin said, taking a step forward and slightly lowering his voice, “there’s something we need to report. Something happened during the mission.”

The girl blinked, surprised. “Yes?”

“The inner disciple leading us, Ke Li, died.”

There was a moment of silence as the girl stared blankly at Tian Jin. Then, she croaked out, “What?”

Inner disciples, even if they went on missions together with outer disciples, reported back in the Inner Mission Hall, so the fact that Ke Li wasn’t with them hadn’t been something odd.

“Ke Li died,” Tian Jin repeated. “A monster killed him.”

The girl’s confusion faded, and she paled. “Er… Okay.” She probably hadn’t had to deal with something like this before and judging by the look on her face, was trying not to panic. “Just… Just wait here for a moment. I need to tell the elders.” Without another word, she turned around and briskly headed toward the door behind her, disappearing into the other side.

Glancing around, Hao Zhen noticed that pretty much all conversation around them had died and that everyone there was staring at them. Already people were whispering, and he caught Tian Jin’s and Duo Lan’s names being said rather often. Hao Zhen did his best to remain cool. Tian Jin and Duo Lan looked perfectly fine, and they probably weren’t even faking it. If they weren’t used to it before, over the last two months they had had a lot of time and opportunities to get used to being the center of attention. Hao Zhen hadn’t been nearly as lucky as them—or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it.

A while later, the girl returned.

“The elders want to talk to you,” she said, an apprehensive look on her face. “Follow me.”

She then walked back into the door she had just come from, not bothering to wait for them, and they made to follow the girl. In front of the door leading deeper inside the building, however, Hao Zhen couldn’t help but linger for a moment, hesitating. Duo Lan glanced back, giving him a questioning look as if wondering what was up with him. He shook his head, gave her a smile that he hoped wasn’t as strained as it felt, and stepped inside.