Chapter Sixty: Assassination Mission

  PS: Today was indeed very powerful, with 330 votes, I'd like to thank everyone here!

  Inside the magnificent Cloud Pavilion, over a hundred disciples had gathered at this time, and from time to time other disciples rushed over.

  As he stepped into the grand hall, Ye Chen looked up to see that the spacious hall, which could accommodate over a hundred people, was still empty. The floor was paved with large slabs of bluestone, and on either side, near the walls, stood nine pillars made of sky-reaching stone, their color a deep blue with hints of red, each one carved with a flying dragon riding on clouds and mist.

  And on the stone pillars going inwards, every thirty steps there is a jade disc, and the jade discs are pasted full of paper.

  "Yechen, you've also arrived." A person walked into the grand hall from outside. It was Wu Zongming. He had already known that Yechen had been promoted to an inner disciple, so he didn't reveal a surprised expression.

  Ye Chen turned around and said: "I've been practicing for almost three months, I feel like I won't be able to make progress in a short period of time, so I came to take a look."

  Wu Zongming smiled and said, "I can't compare to you, I've been cultivating for five months before I dared to take on a task. By the way, this is your first time coming to the Tengyun Hall, so you might not be too familiar with the sect's tasks, let me tell you about it."

  "Thanks a lot!" Ye Chen indeed wanted to ask about the situation.

  "The sect's mission is actually divided into two types. One type is the bounty mission entrusted by other forces to the sect, such as when a small family cannot accomplish something, they can spend a large amount of money to entrust the sect, and then the sect assesses the difficulty of the task and assigns it to the disciples below, letting them complete it. The other type is the mission dispatched by the sect itself, also known as internal mission. The reward for internal missions may not be as high as that of bounty missions, but they can obtain a small amount of spiritual stones. So if you want to distinguish what kind of mission it is, just look at the reward and you'll know, bounty missions can only get gold, while internal missions can get both gold and spiritual stones."

  Ye Chen nodded, so it was like that.

  "Also, according to the difficulty level, tasks are divided into several levels. The lowest level is the White-level task, suitable for early-stage cultivators in the Condensing True Realm. Above that is the Grey-level task, suitable for mid-stage cultivators in the Condensing True Realm. Further up is the Black-level task, which usually only late-stage cultivators in the Condensing True Realm will accept. As for the level above the Black-level task, it's the Elder-level task, which is already beyond our comprehension. Now take a look at the colors of those jade tokens, and you can tell the difficulty level of the tasks." Wu Zongming pointed to the jade tokens inside the grand hall.

  Upon hearing this, Ye Chen carefully observed the past and found that the two white jade tablets near the door were indeed white in color. The tasks posted on them should be white-level tasks. Following the rule of left being larger than right, the one on the left side of the door was an internal task, while the one on the right side was a bounty task. After that were two gray jade tablets, and after the gray ones were two black jade tablets. The disciples standing there were the least in number, only seven or eight. These disciples were mostly at the later stage of their Condensing Reality Realm cultivation, and even included core disciples.

  After clearing his throat, Wu Zongming continued: "In addition to this, tasks of the same level are also divided into difficulty levels, which are one-star difficulty, two-star difficulty, three-star difficulty, four-star difficulty, and the highest five-star difficulty. With my current strength, I can only accept three-star white-level tasks at most. Four stars would be life-threatening, and five stars would basically mean going out without returning."

  "Can we form teams to complete the task?"

  Wu Zongming nodded and said, "That's right. For example, I can only accept three-star white-level tasks. If I want to accept four-star white-level tasks, I must bring one or two inner disciples with similar cultivation levels as me. In this way, once the task is completed, the personal reward may exceed the previous three-star white-level task, and everyone will be happy."

  "Oh, I see!"

  After listening to Wu Zongming's words, Ye Chen became much more interested in the sect's mission. However, he currently doesn't plan on forming a team with others and will consider it later when there is an opportunity.

  "Alright, I'll go and greet a few seniors first. Last time we formed a team together." Wu Zongming saw that Ye Chen basically understood, so he didn't say anything more.

  Ye Chen said thank you again.

  After Wu Zongming left, Ye Chen first came to the white jade pendant on the right.

  As expected, the white jade pendant on the right had a bounty quest stuck to it, with only gold as the reward and no spirit stones.

  Looking down from above.

  The first sheet of paper has a black skull drawn on it, with words written below the skull.

  Mission: Annihilate the Skull Horse Bandits

  Heinous crimes: robbed passing merchants, killed people and looted goods, humiliated women, extremely evil!

  Strength analysis: The leader of the horse bandit group is a peak warrior in the early stage of condensing reality, the second and third leaders are old condensed reality warriors, with 30-40 cavalrymen under their command, and more than ten strong bows.

  Task difficulty: Five stars.

  Reward: 30,000 taels of gold.

  Suggested: Received by five early-stage Congzhen Realm peak warriors or two mid-stage Congzhen Realm warriors.

  After reading this, Ye Chen took a deep breath. This five-star white-level mission was too difficult! It turned out to be the extermination of a group of horse bandits. To know that there are advantages to having more people, even if one's strength is higher by one level, it's not necessarily possible to gain an advantage. If one becomes complacent, they might even lose their life. No wonder the suggestion was for five peak early-stage Condensing Reality cultivators or two mid-stage Condensing Reality warriors to take on the task together. For a single person to go alone would be seeking death.

  But after all, it's just a suggestion, and it's aimed at disciples who aren't particularly talented. For a genius like Ye Chen, skipping levels isn't anything new. If he were to take on this task, Ye Chen would have more than 90% confidence in completing it.

  But isn't it a bit of a problem to take on such a high-difficulty task right from the start?

  After a moment's thought, Ye Chen decided to temporarily give up the five-star white-level task. It wasn't that he was afraid of trouble, but rather cautious. First, find some low-difficulty white-level tasks to practice his skills, and after having a thorough understanding of the difficulty of the tasks, then prepare to take on high-difficulty tasks.

  "This task is mine." Suddenly, a hand reached out towards the paper and with a swooshing sound, the mission document to annihilate the Skull Horse Bandits fell into his hands.

  Ye Chen turned his head to look, and the one who received the task was a tall and sturdy young man with thick and black eyebrows, exuding an extremely oppressive aura that made the surrounding disciples involuntarily take half a step back, their mouths blurting out in surprise: "It's Wang Shixiong!"

  Wang Shixiong? Ye Chen didn't recognize the other party, but the true energy fluctuations on his body were very strong, at least a mid-stage Condensing True Realm martial artist.

  Hehe, with a smile, the tall young man turned and left.

  Unaffected, Ye Chen refocused his attention on the Jade Token, his gaze falling downward.

  The third row.

  Mission: Slay the Blood-handed Butcher!

  Atrocities: Humiliating women, killing people like flies!

  Strength Analysis: Peak warrior at the initial stage of Condensing True Realm.

  Task difficulty: three stars.

  Reward: 4,000 taels of gold.

  Suggested: Received by two Early-Stage Congenital Realm peak warriors or one Mid-Stage Congenital Realm warrior.

  Ye Chen's eyes lit up, it was him.