Chương 309: Taking a mission

The Eastern region was extremely huge. Dozens of thunder sky overlord continents wouldn't be enough to form the Eastern region alone. Hundreds of forces existed in this vast land and innumerable rogue cultivators who didn't join any force existed. In such a vast chaotic land, the Supreme Heaven was occupied a massive territory. The actual sect was only three mountains. They were huge, but compared to the whole eastern region, they weren't worth mentioning.

But the Supreme Heaven Sect also controlled a vast territory beyond the three peaks. This was known as the Supreme Heaven territory. All the Sects, clans and even rogue cultivators within this territory answered to the Supreme Heaven Sect alone. They included thousands of five and four star forces, a few hundred three star forces and a handful of two star forces. They give large amounts of resources as tribute to the sect in exchange for the protection of a quasi one star sect.

In this Mainland where forces could be destroyed daily, such a protection was priceless. These were among the many ways Sect missions came into existence. These forces would submit requests that troubled them to the sect as well as hand over a sizeable reward. If this requests could be completed by disciples without too much risks, it would be placed in the missions hall to be completed. That was one of the ways many Sect missions appeared. Another way was through the sect itself.

There were several other peak wardens, Inner peak elders and the upper echelon of the Sect. Each of them could summon the rains with a single wave of their hands, wielding great power. If they had some minor tasks to be met or even just felt like it, they could create a mission and assign enough rewards and heaven runes to the mission for disciples to complete in the missions hall. These included hunting beasts, sourcing for treasures, rare materials, herb picking and other such things.

It was rumoured that even core disciples had the power to create missions for personal gains. Missions like becoming a sparring partner were such missions. When Long Feng entered the missions hall, he was handed several jades containing various missions by the warden there. He slowly began to go through the jades meticulously, trying to pick a single mission that was suited to his current strength.

"Bring the spirit root of a sky fire bird... difficulty, two star."

"Find a few pieces of starlight stones. Difficulty, half star."

"Protect the daughter of the Cheng City's Lord for three days through the Desolate forests. Difficulty, two stars." Long Feng soon frowned after reading dozens of missions. The difficulty of the missions wer divided into stars, from one star, one and half star and above. One star was mostly for Imperial realm masters and it was the safest for them. Most of the outer peak disciples chose this level of difficulty. One and half star was slightly more dangerous and only at least peak Imperials could attempt them.

Two stars was an impossible mission to any Imperial who foolishly tried them. They were extremely dangerous and had a high mortality rate for Imperials. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Only early stage deities could complete two star missions. As for missions beyond two stars, Long Feng couldn't find any. That was normal, considering that placing them in the outer peak would mean sending disciples to their deaths.

"The sky fire bird is an early stage deity level beasts, and it's flying speed is exceedingly great. Any Peak Imperial would be torn to shreds before they can blink." Long Feng shook his head. That mission was suicide to the current him.

"Starlight stones... I don't even know what those are. And the difficulty is low but it'll take a long time to complete. I don't have that leisure. And protecting the Cheng City Lord'w daughter is a two star difficulty." Most of the missions were like that. Either too dangerous or would take too many times and had very little rewards. Long Feng continued reading and soon found a single mission that suited his needs.

"Protect the essence stone miners beneath the outer peak for a month? Difficulty, one star. Rewards, ten heaven runes and low grade essence stones." Long Feng noted this mission. He was surprised to find that there was an essence stone mine beneath the outer peak, but thinking about it, it wasn't surprising. Where else would the supreme heaven sect source the great amount of essence stones given to disciples every month and used for other important things?

Long Feng found a few more missions that he could complete at his current level. After pondering over them for a few minutes, he decided that taking the essence mine mission was the best. It perfectly suited his needs to stay low key temporarily while paying him a rather high reward compared to other one star missions. This was just how low the rewards for one star missions were.

They rarely gave out more than ten heaven runes and low grade essence stones, to show how hard it was to gather the heaven runes and the low grade essence stones. Long Feng walked up to the counter and placed the essence mine mission jade before the warden behind the counter. The warden casually glanced at the jade and nodded.

"Protecting the essence stone miners for a month. This is a group mission and four people are required this month. You're the third person to pick it. Your token will alert you when the final person has applied and it's time for you all to head to the mine." Long Feng nodded and turned to leave the missions hall. As he left, he began to plan his next moves.

He needed to quickly raise his cultivation to rank nine spirit realm first of all, return to the ancient sword legacy remnant and then strengthen his body once again. He needed resources to raise his cultivation and temper his body, and resources could only be purchased using heaven runes in the sect. Long Feng would have to gather enough heaven runes if he wanted to complete these plans.

"Hopefully, the essence mine mission won't restrict my cultivation time, otherwise I won't return to it again." He returned to his pavilion and waited for his token to alert him. What he thought of as a few hours wait at max soon turned into a full day. It was only the next day that his token suddenly began to glow. When he grabbed it, a message appeared in his mind.

"Your token will lead you to the gathering place. All four of you must be there within an hour or you will be considered to have forfeited the mission." Said the metallic voice. Long Feng's eyes shone instantly. He had already been waiting for this. He quickly packed up the little food he had prepared and left the pavilion, following the subtle trail of his token towards the bottom of the mountain. Rushing forward at his full speed, he managed to arrive at the so called gathering point nearly an hour later.

Even with his headstart and rushing over instantly, he was still the last person to arrive. There were four people standing at the exact area specified, surrounded by trees. Three of them were youths with extremely powerful auras, of which two were rank seven Imperial realm masters and one was at the rank six Imperial realm. The final person was a square faced middle aged man with a serious expression on his face. His aura was extremely deep and no one could tell what his cultivation was.

Long Feng's presence was sensed by all four people even before he arrived. When he came into view, they all glanced at him before averting their gazes.

"Good. You're all here. We'll be heading down to the mining site immediately." The middle aged man turned around and began to walk towards the foot of the mountain. His movement was slow but each step covered several feet, quickly leaving the four youths behind. They all quickly began to run and tried to keep up with the man. Long Feng ran as well while observing the other three youths. The two rank seven Imperials were really strong and he would only have a fourty percent chance of facing them in a a fight.

As for the rank six Imperial, his aura was more or less equal to that of Huang Fang Hao from before. Long Feng was fully confident in defeating him in a fight, but he would require over a hundred moves to do that. The others were also observing each other, and Long Feng's aura stood out spectacularly among them. His rank six spirit realm cultivation could be said to be unique in the past few hundred years in the supreme heaven sect.

After confirming that there was nothing strange about him, the two rank seven Imperials completely erased Long Feng from their minds. Not even the rank six Imperial got their attention. Long Feng didn't mind. He put his all into trying to keep up with the middle aged man who was most probably a warden. Over an hour passed before the man came to a stop at the bottom of the mountain. He then walked towards the other side of the mountain slowly and paused before an ordinary mountain rock.

The rock was rather large and was protruding out of the mountain itself, holding it in place. There didn't seem to be anything strange about it. The warden made a hand seal and the rock suddenly shook slightly, then faded away to reveal a dark passage that led downwards to unknown depths. The four youths watched this in surprise. The supreme heaven sect was really mysterious. Who would be able to tell that such an ordinary rock was the entrance to an essence stone mine?

"I will say this one time. If you ever spread words about this place to anyone, you will be crippled off your cultivation and thrown into the Discipline hall to be punished." The warden paused and said without glancing at them. The four youths instantly nodded. There was no doubt that the warden was speaking seriously. Spreading words of this essence stone mine's location would cause one's cultivation to be crippled. None of them were stupid enough to risk that over nothing.

The warden stepped into the dark tunnel and the four youths followed behind him. As soon as they walked in, the stone reappeared from outside, making the surroundings return to normal. Within the dark tunnel, the five figures walked for a long time. Long Feng estimated that they had been walking deeper into the earth for the past one or two hours. The depths they were at must be shocking. After a short while, they spotted a faint light in the distance.

The warden hastened his footsteps and they soon exited the tunnel, finding themselves in a large underground cave. All around them were dozens of fark tunnels that led into unknown areas, each one appearing like the open mouth of a large beast. The cave was well lit by several glowing crystals embedded into the walls at different places. There was an old man leaning against the wall at a corner of the cave. None of the youths could sense his presence with their perceptions at all.

He was dressed in shabby clothing with his hair and beard looking unkept. The old man barely seemed to react to their entrance. The warden walked towards the old man.

"Four new kids to replace those ones, as you requested." He said. The old man finally moved slightly and raised his head to glance at the warden, then at the four youths. His eyes were murky, yet under his gaze, Long Feng felt almost completely seen through. This old man was certainly not an ordinary person. He was surely another of the many experts in the sect, possibly at the same level as the head warden.