Chapter 1735: Seeking Missions

The mission Li Yan had accepted this time was to find a “Purple Star Flower” that was over three hundred years old. Such herbs usually had companion demon beasts, and a three-hundred-year-old flower would be guarded by at least a fourth-rank beast. The reward for the mission was not fixed but determined by the actual age of the flower.

While this herb was not extremely hard to find, it typically grew in the territory of a colony-dwelling demon beast called “Profound Sight Bees.” Aside from the powerful Queen, their most terrifying trait was their swarm attacks. When the sky-blotting swarm attacked, most cultivators dared not face them.

Li Yan had spent over a month in hiding before finding a good opportunity. However, while picking it, he was discovered due to his proximity. He was instantly surrounded by tens of thousands of bees, including three at the fifth rank. Because the Queen was resting beneath the flower, her reaction was incredibly fast. He had even been stung by the lightning-fast Queen, whose stinger pierced his tough skin. The Queen had injected a potent poison, but it was countered by Li Yan’s Fragmented Poison Body.

It was precisely because of this that the Queen made an irreversible error in judgment; she assumed that even if Li Yan didn’t die, he would be paralyzed by the poison. Li Yan seized that moment. Acting as if nothing were wrong, he used his fastest speed to shoot through a small gap in the swarm’s encirclement. Before they could react, he had vanished into the distance…

Deacon Sun inspected the flower meticulously for several minutes before looking up. To serve as a deacon here, one had to pass rigorous alchemy tests, so he was very familiar with various materials.

“Senior Li, the age of this Purple Star Flower should be around four hundred and eighty years. Therefore, your reward for this mission is eight hundred Contribution Points.” He stated his judgment, and Li Yan nodded immediately. This was close to his own estimate. The deacon had not made things difficult for him, which was exactly why Li Yan preferred handing in missions to deacons he knew.

Seeing Li Yan nod without hesitation, Deacon Sun took the token again and placed it in a slot on the corner of the table. The slot was only slightly larger than the token, allowing it to fit perfectly. The moment it was placed, the area transformed. A hazy pale yellow halo rose, and like the formations on the palace ceiling, it radiated beams of light. Deacon Sun performed a hand seal and pointed at the halo, which emitted a low hum.

Then, the light dissipated instantly, revealing the token. The process was very brief, starting and ending in an instant. Deacon Sun then used his palm to pull the token back and handed it to Li Yan.

“Senior Li, I imagine this mission was not easy. A Purple Star Flower nearly five hundred years old is something even a late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator might not successfully harvest!” He added with admiration, seeing that no one else was behind Li Yan.

A flower of that age would be guarded by a swarm with a mid-stage fifth-rank Queen. A swarm with such a powerful Queen might even have other fifth-rank beasts as subordinates. Combined with the endless swarm, even a late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator would find it a headache. Li Yan’s currently displayed cultivation was that of someone who had recently entered the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation. To avoid attracting too much attention while taking on missions, he had “reached” the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation two years ago.

“It went well. It so happened that the Queen had just laid many eggs and was quite weak. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared to act. By the way, Fellow Daoist Sun, do you know of any missions worth noting recently?” Li Yan took the token and checked it with his Divine Sense. Seeing that eight hundred points had been added, he stowed it away.

As he put the token away, he steered the conversation toward his secondary goal. Although he would check the task board later, there were many tasks, and searching took time. These deacons, however, knew the details of various missions; asking them first made verification much simpler. Li Yan had been doing this for years, as he needed to save as much time as possible.

Deacon Sun was used to this. What Li Yan meant by “worth noting” were tasks with relatively rich rewards—generally those offering over three hundred points. The mission Li Yan had just handed in had only offered three hundred and fifty points when it was posted. Because the flower was over a hundred years older than required, the points had more than doubled.

“Hehe… there are about four or five missions that might interest you, Senior…” Deacon Sun began to list them. These were not the top-tier missions; those were for Void Refining cultivators and above. A Spirit Transformation cultivator taking those would be seeking death.

A short while later, as he watched Li Yan depart, a smile remained on Deacon Sun’s face. Senior Li’s questions were never in vain, and he was more than happy to keep an eye out for him…

Li Yan arrived before the light screen displaying the tasks and looked up. The task board was arranged in a ring high above, encircling a large area. For a top sect, the number of tasks was staggering. Although they were categorized, searching through the dense mass of text was still a chore.

He soon found several tasks in the areas Deacon Sun had mentioned. After verifying them, his gaze landed on one in particular. This was a task Deacon Sun had mentioned with some hesitation. The minimum requirement for the task was cultivation—at least the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation. Li Yan’s cultivation just barely met the threshold. Deacon Sun also knew that Li Yan had only reached that stage a few years ago.

Most missions in Huangqi Valley did not specify a cultivation realm but rather restricted participants by their alchemical rank. This meant many tasks were focused on refining and medicine. Thus, it was common to see Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and even Spirit Transformation cultivators fighting over the same task. However, when a task specified a cultivation realm, it meant that those who only met the minimum requirement should probably stay away. It was just a threshold.

Like the Purple Star Flower mission, which required at least the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm. If a cultivator at that level had encountered the situation Li Yan did, they would have certainly died. One had to act within their means. Deacon Sun knew Li Yan was strong—he wouldn’t have been able to harvest a five-hundred-year-old flower otherwise—but this task was clearly still very dangerous.

“Mission: Escort pills to Xianhe Manor. Restriction: Six cultivators at the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation or higher. Reward: 3,000 Sect Contribution Points per person…”

Li Yan looked at the task. The description was brief, as usual; details were only provided after acceptance. ‘So many Contribution Points?’ Li Yan’s eyes narrowed the moment he saw the reward.

But he didn’t feel any excitement. Usually, a five-hundred-point mission was considered risky—like his Purple Star Flower hunt. This task offered several times that amount. This meant the danger was at a level that would make one’s heart jump. Li Yan didn’t know where Xianhe Manor was, but it clearly wasn’t close.

A few seconds later, Li Yan’s expression returned to normal, and he scanned other tasks. There were several others that offered between eight hundred and fifteen hundred points. Li Yan’s gaze drifted for a moment before returning to the escort mission. He didn’t have much time left. But how was he to acquire nearly thirty thousand points?

‘This task wasn’t posted today, yet it hasn’t been filled. It seems everyone knows the danger involved. Three thousand points… this is a task more suited for Void Refining cultivators…’ Li Yan suspected some Void Refining experts might take it, but that was just a guess.

There were many other missions on the board for Void Refining cultivators or Alchemy Great Grandmasters. The rewards for those were outrageous, starting at a minimum of three thousand points. That was because the Body Integration stage old monsters generally didn’t participate in such affairs. Thus, the hardest tasks were handled by Void Refining experts or Great Grandmasters. But they weren’t as desperate as Li Yan, who was willing to take on even the two-hundred-point tasks usually handled by Nascent Soul disciples. It was as if he didn’t care about wasting time, even though time was the most precious resource for a cultivator…

Li Yan looked at the other missions offering three or five thousand points. He met neither the cultivation nor the alchemical requirements for those. A sharp light flashed in his eyes a few times before he took out his token. With a surge of magical power, he gave the task a light swipe, and a beam of light instantly descended…