Chapter 175: Hall of Contribution; Sect Mission
“Why else do you think there are so many people at the foot of this mountain doing such business. They were all duped mercilessly.”
Xiao Chen understood that the problem did not lie in the Spirit Beast’s strength being low. It was actually a problem of poor communication with the owner. This required a special method.
This was something only the Great Tang Nation’s Beast Taming Abode could do. The people of other nations did not have good taming methods. It was already very good for them to be able to train their Spirit Beasts to understand some simple commands.
However, this person seemed very excited when speaking about it. Xiao Chen did not feel like interrupting him, thus, he let him continue speaking. After some time, they reached the top. Xiao Chen thanked him and then immediately asked around for the location of the Hall of Contributions.
The size of the Heaven Viewing Platform surpassed a small city. There were magnificent buildings everywhere. Although they were all disorderly, it seemed charming. There were people moving around, and it was bustling.
After Xiao Chen found out the location of the Hall of Contributions, he started to fumble his way toward it slowly. This was his first time going there, so he did not know the way. After walking for a long time, he finally found the Hall of Contributions.
The Hall of Contributions… What kind of place will it be? Xiao Chen entered with anticipation in his heart. There were plenty of people going in and out of the Hall of Contributions
Did I come to the wrong place? Xiao Chen looked at his surroundings in astonishment. The Great Hall was filled with tables with groups of people seated at each one. They were all eating and drinking while chatting in low voices.
If there were waiters, this would have been exactly like a restaurant. Furthermore, it would have been one of the simplest types as there were no extravagant decorations.
However, if one observed carefully, they would discover the atmosphere here was different from those restaurants. There was no loud chatter. Despite there being hundreds of people gathered here, one could only hear some soft whispering.
Also, everyone was emitting an indistinct killing intent. When all the killing intent in the hall was gathered, it was like thousands of streams gathering together to form an ocean.
For the people with relatively lower strength, they would be immediately knocked unconscious by the surging killing intent.
Xiao Chen stayed calm and paid attention, as he had the feeling that this place was not as simple as he had thought it to be. He grasped the Lunar Shadow Saber tightly and slowly walked towards the counter.
The tables in the Great Hall were arranged in an orderly fashion. There was a broad walkway through the middle of them. When Xiao Chen was walking on it, he felt it was strange—he was the only one on the walkway.
“Dang!”
A saber tore through the air and flew towards him. Xiao Chen drew his Lunar Shadow Saber and easily deflected the saber.
Just as the saber was about to land on the ground, a strong suction force pulled the saber over. The owner of the saber was a male wearing the Wanren Peak uniform. He gave Xiao Chen a cold look and said, “Where did this wild brat come from. Don’t you know the rules? Is it even your turn to receive a mission?”
Xiao Chen looked in the direction of the source of the voice. In that direction, there were ten-odd inner disciples wearing the Wanren Peak uniform. They were all looking at Xiao Chen with killing intent.
The Heavenly Saber Pavilion had never prohibited their disciples from fighting. As long as they did not kill or cripple the other person’s cultivation, the Law Enforcement Hall would not even bother about it.
Not far away, someone saw Xiao Chen’s Qingyun Peak’s identify token. He could not help but mock, “I wondered who it could be, that they did not know the rules. So, it is someone from Qingyun Peak.
“You from Qingyun Peak, just obediently find a table and sit down. Today is the day the Hall of Contributions issues the high level sect mission. After the core disciples of the various peaks have accepted their missions, only then will the Hall of Contributions recover its normal state.”
Since they were sect missions, there would be differences in the difficulty. The rewards given would be different as well. The rewards for the high level mission would naturally be shockingly high.
Furthermore, these high level missions were not always available; in fact, they were pretty rare. Like the saying goes: ‘Plenty of people, but very little meat’.
In order to prevent these high level missions from being snatched by other people, the disciples of the five great peaks privately made up a set of rules. Every time a high level mission appeared, it would be distributed amongst the core disciples of the various peaks.
The people of the Hall of Contributions also kept one eye shut with regards to this. The difficulty of the high level missions was high, and was definitely much more difficult than the regular missions. If the core disciples were the ones completing them, they would be able to complete them faster.
Xiao Chen had come at a bad time; coincidentally, there was a high level mission coming out today. The core disciples of the great peaks were currently outside discussing how to distribute the high level mission.
Before the results came out, all the inner disciples in the Great Hall did not dare to make a move—they were afraid of causing a misunderstanding, causing people to think they were going to grab the high level missions.
There was a kind hearted disciple who explained the rules in detail to Xiao Chen. He advised Xiao Chen to take a seat and get a mission after the high level missions were taken.
“Don’t bother advising him, he does not even care about the Biyun Peak’s Peak Master. These are just the core disciples of the five great peaks. Why would he care about them?” someone who recognized Xiao Chen said snarkily.
“Hehe, that’s true. I think he probably did this on purpose.”
“Just an insignificant Inferior Grade Martial Grand Master. I would be able to squash him with one hand. I don’t believe he could trade blows with a peak Martial King,” said the Wanren Peak disciple who had made a move against Xiao Chen earlier.
He was already a Superior Grade Martial Grand Master, he was two grades higher than Xiao Chen. He was looking at Xiao Chen with a provoking gaze.
High level mission? If there really is one, then it might be possible for me to obtain 500 contribution points within a month. However, it seems a little too noisy here.
“Dragon Seizing Hand!”
Xiao Chen snorted coldly and killing intent appeared in his eyes. A huge black hand appeared from nowhere and flew past the crowd. Then it smashed downward onto the head of the Wanren Peak disciple.
The crowd immediately scattered. The huge black hand descended and smashed on the table. Under the huge force, the wooden table shattered with a loud bang, filling the air with wooden splinters.
Within the Hall of Contributions’ Great Hall, everyone looked at Xiao Chen in astonishment. They had not expected Xiao Chen to make a move. After all, he was alone, how could he be a match for so many Wanren Peak disciples?
“You really dare to attack me. If I don’t beat you up badly and teach you how to respect your seniors, my name is not Li You,” the leader cursed when he saw Xiao Chen making a move.
“Hu!” Just as he was prepared to lead the Wanren Peak disciples to charge forward, a huge black hand suddenly rose up like a demonic shadow and clenched itself into a fist. Li You was caught off guard and captured by the hand.
Xiao Chen pulled gently and a huge force pulled Li You to the front. Then Xiao Chen punched him heavily on the chest.
The huge black hand had vanished. When Xiao Chen’s fist struck his chest, it caused him to vomit a large mouthful of blood and fall to the floor.
“Bang!” When Li You was struggling to get up, Xiao Chen stepped on his chest and pushed him back down. Xiao Chen had put all his strength into this push, causing Li You to vomit another mouthful of blood.
“Just a sneak attack, how is that considered capable? If you have the guts then let me go and fight me again!” Li You could not help but shout out; he did his best to resist Xiao Chen’s foot but to no avail.
Xiao Chen was not a three-year-old child, naturally, he would not fall for Li You’s trick. The ten-odd Wanren Peak disciples at the side quickly rushed over. Since Xiao Chen had Li You under his foot, they did not dare to do anything.
When Li You saw the situation, he shouted, “Do something! This is the Heaven Saber Pavilion. He won’t dare to kill me.”
“Kill!”
When the crowd heard this, they no longer hesitated. Their sabers lit up with saber light and they all rushed at Xiao Chen to attack him.
Xiao Chen smiled faintly and executed the Three Flowing Cloud Images without even drawing the Lunar Shadow Saber from his scabbard. He turned into a boundless ocean; he was not even flustered against the attacks coming without pause.
The Lunar Shadow Saber was like flowing water, causing gentle ripples as it changed direction continuously. Those attacking Xiao Chen felt like they were attacking the surface of water.
They caused the surface of the water to be disturbed, creating larges wave; the ocean tossed and turned. However, after a while, the water’s surface returned to being calm; it became like a mirror again, without any ripples.
Perfection like Water, competing by not competing. The attacks that struck Xiao Chen’s scabbard were all bounced back at themselves. At that moment, everyone was incredibly astonished.
After a while, another wave of attacks was sent at Xiao Chen. Like earlier, Xiao Chen did not even move an inch. His heart was calm like still water. The scabbard of his saber firmly blocked every attack.
“Ka Ca!”
When the fifth wave of attacks were bounced back, Xiao Chen lost all patience and drew the Lunar Shadow Saber with a ‘huang dang’ sound. There was a piercing cold light when it was drawn out of the scabbard.
In the time it took for a spark to fly, Xiao Chen pierced downward at Li You with the Lunar Shadow in his right hand.
With a ‘pu ci’ sound, the tip of the blade pierced an inch to the side of Li You’s heart. It caused a large amount of blood to continuously spurt out.
The originally quiet Great Hall now turned absolutely silent. Everyone in the Great Hall had their jaws open wide. They were all stunned, as though there had been a short circuit in their brain.
Because of the angle, everyone thought Xiao Chen had pierced through Li You’s heart with the saber. They all thought Xiao Chen had eaten the leopard’s gall bladder. He actually dared to kill someone in the Hall of Contributions.
[TL Note: Eating the leopard’s gall bladder: This means that Xiao Chen was very daring. Usually used in a situation where someone did some incredulous act.]
Xiao Chen quickly pulled the saber out of Li You’s body, causing a large amount of blood to spurt out. In the instant that the Wanren Peak disciples were distracted, he executed the Three Flowing Cloud Images.
Xiao Chen’s figure turned blurry. It was as though the entire place was filled with Xiao Chen’s figure. When all the figures merged back together, a saber had struck every Wanren Peak disciple’s chest. There was electricity dancing on all of their wounds as blood flowed continuously; it was extremely painful.
All the Wanren Peak disciples fell to the ground, continuously moaning in pain. It was extremely piercing in the quiet Great Hall.
“Hu! Hu!”
Suddenly two people appeared out of nowhere and checked Li You’s injures. They quickly pressed on some of his acupoints and exchanged a glance. They ignored the other injured people and retreated.
Xiao Chen understood that these two people were the guards of the Hall of Contributions. If he had really killed Li You, they would not have just watched without doing anything.
Xiao Chen continued to walk forward, ignoring everyone’s gazes. He completely ignored everything, including the rules the five great peaks had set for themselves. He was ready to go see what kind of high level mission was available.
In Xiao Chen’s opinion, since it was the mission from the Hall of Contribution, everyone had the right to take it. Monopolising these missions was a form of bullying.
Furthermore, Xiao Chen was desperately in need of contribution points. Even if he had to offend these people, it did not matter. He had already offended these people at the Heaven Ascending Platform, thus this would not make much of a difference.