Chapter 70: Two-Star Gray-Level Mission

  PS: Today's recommended tickets are a bit less, hoping everyone can support more, there is still a third update tonight!

  Night has fallen!

  Ye Chen, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes, raised his hand, and a sword made of airflow appeared out of thin air, shooting out with a whooshing sound.

  Hmph!

  The wall was like tofu, easily penetrated, with a small sword hole appearing.

  "The pure yuan true energy has finally reached the seventh layer."

  The sixth and seventh stages are only a small step apart in terms of boundary, but the power is vastly different. If Qi Meng is an ordinary sword, then Qi Jian is a true treasure sword. Without mentioning cutting through iron like mud, killing a cultivator at the boundary of 100 steps away is as simple as eating and drinking.

  Jumping down from the bed, Ye Chen's figure flashed and he passed through the doorway to arrive outside the courtyard.

  Her gaze searched around and found that there was also a sword hole on the wall of the courtyard, which was as thick as a foot. It was unknown where the sword had actually shot to, hoping not to hurt anyone.

  ……

  The second morning.

  Tengyun Grand Hall

  "Are the five-star white-level tasks all gone?" In front of the white jade plate on the right side of the door, Ye Chen furrowed his brow. He had originally planned to take a five-star white-level task to practice and earn some extra money, but now it seemed that these tasks were highly sought after and very rare.

  After some thought, Ye Chen sidled over to the deeper part of the grand hall and stopped in front of a grey jade pendant.

  "Does this kid want to die? A gray-level task is something that even the top 200 inner disciples who are ranked need to be cautious about, and he dares to take it on with only early-stage Condensing Reality cultivation?"

  "Maybe he just came to take a look, and didn't dare to receive it."

  Several inner disciples nearby noticed Ye Chen, their eyes flickering as they whispered among themselves.

  Ye Chen was indifferent to others' opinions, with his strength, taking on gray-level tasks wasn't too excessive, if calculated based on task difficulty, a True Intent realm warrior could be divided into fifteen stars, he should at least be above the fifth star.

  On the gray jade pendant, there were quite a few tasks.

  After a moment, Ye Chen found a satisfactory task.

  The fourth line third task order.

  Mission: Escort Ling's medicine collection team into the Blood Forest.

  Details: The place where herbs are collected is near the depths of the forest, with many third-level demon beasts and a considerable number of fourth-level demon beasts.

  Task difficulty: two stars.

  Reward: 20,000 gold and 10 One-Air Therapy Injury Dan.

  Note: Five temporary bodyguards are needed, screening is required.

  Ye Chen glanced to the side, and indeed, there were five identical task sheets. Someone had already torn off one earlier. Apart from this, other sects must have received the same task as well. In other words, when the time comes, with more people going, they would need to go through a selection process to determine who could do it, rather than just taking on the task.

  Without hesitation, Ye Chen reached out and tore off the task list.

  "What? He really took it on, and that's a two-star gray-level mission." The exclamation came out.

  "Hmph, this task only requires five people, he went too and it's a humiliation to himself, I hope during the selection, don't let Flowing Cloud Sect lose face."

  "Ziyang Sect and our Liuyun Sect have never seen eye to eye, and when the opportunity arises, they will not hesitate to humiliate us to death. Moreover, with the addition of Feicui Valley, which has always been proud of itself, the chance is even slimmer."

  Under the silent gaze of the crowd, Ye Chen walked out of the Tengyun Grand Hall.

  At the foot of the mountain.

  Ye Chen flipped onto his horse and galloped out.

  The Ling family is a small clan in Blackstone City, mainly developing through medicine collection and refinement. There are not many masters in the family, only two early-stage Wu Zong who have entered the Yuan Yuan stage, and dozens of Wu Zong who have entered the Ning Zhen stage. Compared to the eight major families, they are weak beyond compare.

  It was also for this reason that the Ling family decided to hire sect disciples to escort the medicine collection team, after all, the sect's disciples were numerous and talented, and cross-level battles were a common occurrence. A mid-stage Condensing True Realm martial artist was even more formidable than their family's late-stage Condensing True Realm martial artists, and their cultivation techniques were also much stronger.

  But after all, a small family is still a small family, and it's not possible to have too much spare money to hire sect disciples, so in the end, they decided to determine the five temporary guards through screening.

  Afternoon hours.

  Ye Chen arrived at Blackstone City without stopping and headed north to the Ling family's residence.

  At this time, the Ling family was very lively. More than a dozen extraordinary young people gathered in the martial arts arena, including green-clad disciples from Feicui Valley, white-clad disciples from Beixue Manor, purple-clad disciples from Ziyang Sect, blue-clad disciples from Nanluo Sect, and moon-white-robed disciples from Liuyun Sect. In addition to these, there were also many inner disciples from other sects, totaling over ten people.

  More than 20 people gathered here, making the Ling family feel a mix of emotions. If all these people were descendants of the Ling family, it's likely that within a decade or so, they could develop into a mid-sized clan, and even have hopes of becoming a large clan. Unfortunately, some things are just wishful thinking, destined to never come true.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, the Ling family's medicine collection team will be entering the Blood Forest tomorrow morning. Therefore, before dusk today, we will decide on the five temporary guards. Those who are not selected, I, Ling Tianmo, will not treat them unfairly. You will be well-fed and well-housed here, and I guarantee you will be satisfied." The speaker was Ling Tianmo, the master of the Ling family, who was in his early forties and had a cultivation level at the beginning of the Yuan Yuan stage.

  One of the Southern Luo Zong inner disciples asked: "Ling family master, what are the screening rules? Let's hear it."

  Ling Tian smiled and said, "One-on-one matches are definitely not very realistic, so I've adopted a free-for-all screening rule. Take a look at the martial arts arena over there, where you'll see a white circular ring. Later on, all of you will enter it and engage in a melee battle. Those who exit the circle will lose their qualifications, and the last five people remaining will become the temporary guards for this expedition to gather medicine."

  After clearing his throat, Ling Tian continued: "In order to be fair, during the melee, you cannot gang up on someone. It must be one-on-one. When others are fighting, you can only look for another person and cannot intervene. I hope everyone remembers this."

  Everyone looked over and indeed, on the martial arts arena, a huge white circle was painted, about five zhang in size. It could barely fit twenty or so people inside to fight, but when the battle starts, palm winds and fist winds will inevitably affect others. It can be said that the difficulty is extremely high.

  "Good, there's a challenge, I like it." The disciple of the Emerald Valley sect, dressed in green, nodded and looked down at everyone with an arrogant face.

  The inner disciples of Ziyang Sect were unwilling to fall behind, "I, Ziyang Sect's martial arts are all about grand openings and closings, I love this kind of chaotic battlefield the most, haha..."

  "The disciples of Beishan Manor will not be afraid of anyone."

  Nanluo Zong is also.

  When it was the turn of the inner disciples of Liúyún Zōng, everyone sneered and laughed coldly. The few Liúyún Zōng disciples who came were simply not worthy of mention, with the strongest being only in the middle stage of the Condensing Reality Realm, and they didn't have any reputation to speak of. It seemed like they had just come to join in the fun and boost the morale of others.

  Apart from the five major sects, the disciples of other sects didn't have much confidence, but thinking that they might snatch the position of Liuyun Sect, their morale slightly rose.

  "Five temporary bodyguards, count me as one."

  Just then, a clear voice came from outside the martial arts arena.

  Ling Tian looked around, slightly disappointed. What was Flow Cloud Sect doing? The people who came were all ordinary goods, and the person in front of him was even more outrageous, actually only having Condensed True Realm early stage cultivation.