The volcanoes on Meegah Island rumbled, sending out billowing clouds of black ash in all directions. The ash was then captured by the power of the Seven Blood Eyes formations and sent out onto the Seazombie battlefield. Some of the ash fell on the island like black snow. Occasionally, the rumbling of the volcanoes ramped up into a deafening sound that overwhelmed all other sounds.
Xu Qing didn’t dare to stay up in the air for long. Dropping to the ground, he looked around at the disciples from the various peaks, rushing about this way and that.
Everyone had their own goals and destinations. Some were setting up spell formations, others were performing maintenance on weapons. Some were heading toward teleportation portals to go to the field of battle, which was just beyond the boundaries of the island. Up above, certain Foundation Establishment cultivators flew in midair, just within the bounds of the spell formation. And new people continued to arrive.
Xu Qing’s identity medallion vibrated as new mission information arrived. In fact, upon arriving, a waterfall of new missions poured in. Keeping his guard up, Xu Qing started to inspect the mission listings.
Some missions disappeared almost as soon as they came in, having been accepted by individual disciples. Other group missions would list how many people had accepted them, and when the slots were filled, would disappear.
“Stand guard over weapons on Joine Island. Needed: three disciples from the Sixth Peak in the fifth level of Qi Condensation or higher and three Foundation Establishment cultivators. Reward: 50,000 spirit stones, split up based on performance and cultivation base.”
“Sixty Qi Condensation disciples needed on Emiche Island, plus two Foundation Establishment disciples, to root out enemy ambushes targeting First Peak disciples as they work on frontline magical device setup. Total reward: 70,000 spirit stones.”
“Needed: three hundred people skilled in spell formation maintenance. Total reward: 60,000 spirit stones.”
“Needed: ten Qi Condensation disciples to accept grue forms. 1,000 spirit stones for one day of service.”
After glancing through the missions, Xu Qing realized there was one particular mission that was pinned to the top. It was a battle mission.
“Long-term mission on the battlefield outside the islands. Kill more than 10,000 Seazombie cultivators, regardless of cultivation base level. Reward: a destined opportunity to reach Gold Core.”
After looking at the mission, Xu Qing felt shaken. The reward was incredible. For most Foundation Establishment cultivators, any destined opportunity to reach the Gold Core level was something that would turn their eyes red with anticipation.
As he continued to look through various missions, he noticed a new mission that was bright red, like blood, making it stand out from the others.
“Needed: ten Foundation Establishment disciples who can enter profound radiance state, to cross the battlefield to the Seazombies’ third fortified island. Mission details will be provided by an elder. This mission is very dangerous, and could involve clashes with Gold Core cultivators. The reward for each individual participant is 8,000,000 spirit stones.”
It was a shocking mission as far as Xu Qing was concerned, and it seemed incredibly dangerous. In fact, it was the kind of mission in which death seemed more likely than success.
However, after only a few moments, the mission capacity filled up, and the mission vanished. It made Xu Qing think back to what Zhang Yunshi had said about war, and how disciples would rush to accept missions that came with a lot of profit.
I need to pick a mission.
Based on what he was seeing, the Qi Condensation missions didn’t come with very good rewards, and most of them were split between the participants.
And the really good Foundation Establishment missions required profound radiance state. Because of his cultivation base, he couldn’t accept such missions. For that same reason, he didn’t think it was a good idea to accept any battlefield missions.
What he needed was a mission that would provide some spirit stones, but at the same time, give him a chance to kill a lot of Seazombies.
It didn’t take long for him to find a mission just like that in the list.
“Scouts report the underwater world on all four Merfolk islands have small-scale Seazombie teleportation portals. We need eight Foundation Establishment cultivators, two for each island, to search for these spell formations and destroy them. Kill any Seazombies you encounter, or if they’re too difficult to kill, report them immediately. For every teleportation portal you destroy, the reward is 10,000 spirit stones. You will also be rewarded based on your kill count.”
The mission seemed to meet every one of Xu Qing’s requirements, so without any hesitation, he selected it. By the time he did so, seven of the other mission slots had already been filled. He was the final one to sign up. Had he been even a bit slower, he would have missed out on the mission.
After accepting the mission, more mission details were sent to his identity medallion. He was assigned to Meegah Island. There were eight people signed up for the mission, but the names were kept private, so he had no idea who the other seven were.
The mission details also contained a physical description of the teleportation portals, and an explanation of how to identify them by their fluctuations. It explained how to destroy them, and also included a reminder that, until a teleportation portal was destroyed, it was possible Seazombies could teleport through it.
Because of the restrictions in place by the sect’s grand spell formation, it was impossible for the small-scale teleportation portals to accommodate Seazombie cultivators with two life flames. The majority who came through wouldn’t even have life flames, and they would be on suicide missions to destroy spell formations and magical devices belonging to Seven Blood Eyes. That said, Seazombie teleportation portals didn’t operate on spirit power or dharma force, but rather, mutagen. Coupled with the high concentrations of mutagen deep underwater, the teleportation portals would be difficult to find.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he considered that there would be another sect disciple on the same island as him, working on the same mission. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨
With that, he moved toward the nearest city. The passages to the underwater world were all in the cities, as he knew from experience. Most Merfolk cities were now nothing but ruins, but the jade slip Huang Yan had given him had a detailed description of Meegah Island, and he remembered that there was a tunnel not very far away.
As he sped along through midair toward his destination, the deafening sound of the volcanoes surrounded him, and black ash drifted down everywhere. He saw other Seven Blood Eyes disciples as he went, but no one called out greetings to each other. Everyone just hurried on their way. After an incense stick’s worth of time, he saw the crumbled ruins of a city up ahead.
It didn’t take long to find the tunnel entrance. The area around it had been cleared. Coming from deep in the tunnel was a frigid energy and also the smell of blood. Previously, the sea water had been deep in the tunnel, but the water level had risen, and was visible from the tunnel mouth.
Looking down suspiciously, he took out some poison powder and scattered it. Before it could even dissipate into the water, he jumped down.
Once in the water, he took out a sack of poison like he had before, then started moving down. For about thirty breaths of time, he just went down and down. Everything was still and quiet, with all of the clamor of the world above cut off by the water. The rumbling of the volcanoes was little more than a faint vibration. However, Xu Qing kept his guard up as usual. When he neared the bottom, he tossed the sack down, where it exploded and sent poison everywhere. Finally, he emerged from the tunnel.
Looking around, he saw that all the buildings were in complete ruin. The coral and sea anemones were all rotting. Apparently, the black smoke that had spread out during the Grand Competition had lain waste to everything.
I need to hurry and find the teleportation portals.
Looking around, he didn’t get any sense of where the portals were. Therefore, he sent his dharma force into the violet crystal within him to create a force of suppression. The shadow instantly pointed out a direction to go in.
One of the reasons he’d accepted this mission was that he knew his shadow was sensitive to mutagen. Others might have a hard time finding the teleportation portals due to the strong mutagen under the water, and would have to rely on special magical devices. But Xu Qing didn’t have to do that. Besides, he had the feeling his shadow would be much better than any magical devices at sniffing out the mutagen signature of the teleportation portal. The only thing he was worried about was that his shadow wouldn’t cooperate.
“I’m going to assess you ten days earlier….” he said.
His shadow trembled, then clearly focused on trying to find the right mutagen signature.
Meanwhile, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior spoke from within the iron skewer. “Don’t be angry, milord. The shadow doesn’t understand you the way your humble servant does. Milord, I know how tired you get from all your hard work. Obviously, the two of us need to take the initiative to share in your weariness. What worries you, milord, worries us. What concerns you, milord, concerns us.”
Hearing this, the shadow suddenly bristled with killing energy.
After thinking about it, Xu Qing decided that what the patriarch had said made sense, and thus he looked coldly at the shadow and suppressed it three times in a row.
“I don’t like that killing energy of yours.”
The shadow trembled as if in humiliation. However, it cooperated, dutifully pointing the way to the teleportation portal while Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior looked on complacently.
With the shadow as his guide, Xu Qing quickly found the teleportation portal. It was located in a crater that had likely been hewn out by a blast from a magical technique. Within the mud and silt was the teleportation portal. It didn’t emanate any fluctuations, which meant that the only way to find it would be to notice how strong the mutagen was in the area.
Looking at it, he could see that the portal wasn’t active. Based on the description from the mission, he knew where the eye of the portal was. With one vicious kick, he destroyed it. It didn’t take any prompting for his shadow to find the next portal and lead the way to it.
Xu Qing moved at high speed, quickly destroying a second and third portal. As for the fourth portal, just when he was about to destroy it, it flared to life.
Muttering in surprise, he focused on the glittering portal, and sensed a Foundation Establishment aura. It seemed that someone was teleporting in. The aura wasn’t particularly strong. Whoever was coming, they didn’t have a life flame. Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing chose not to destroy the portal, and instead quickly scattered poison powder all over the portal. In only ten breaths of time, he put over a hundred types of poison in place.
Then his iron skewer flew out and hid itself next to him. There was now a small bell tied to the skewer. That bell would affect the soul of anyone with a fleshly body. But it didn’t affect spiritual souls. Inside the skewer, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior was very excited, as he knew his time had come to shine.
The anxious shadow, not wanting to show any weakness, remained at the ready.
Finally, Xu Qing took out his dharmaskiff, then backed up a few paces and squatted on his haunches, his eyes glittering with cold light as black balefire rushed out to form a dagger in his hand.
“They’re almost here,” he murmured. The teleportation portal flared with light, and the mutagen levels soared. Then, Seazombies started emerging.