Beastmaster of the AgesBeastmaster of the Ages
Spectral progenitors were similar to nova wildbeasts, both in terms of physical makeup and abilities. But while they may only have beast souls, their intelligence was far higher and they were considered sapient, unlike normal wildbeasts.
"Darkfiends, eh...." Tianming had wanted to go to the Xenoabyss, but hearing about that mission gave him the urge to join it. He was a sky plunderer and wanted to know more about his kind through the Archaionfiend and darkfiends.
Since there was only one slot, the opportunity could easily pass him by. He didn't hesitate any longer and immediately went to the mission giver and took the mission by swiping his myriadpath ring. It was a simple mission that required him to slay darkfiends for merit. He gave the detailed briefing a look.
"So there's an odd place called the Darkfiend Den that suddenly appeared near Bluemaple, the home star of the Bluemaple Mundus, in the past few millennia. It's a part of the secret realm, and many gigantic darkfiends live within it, which often go to Bluemaple to slaughter the people there to feast on them, huh....
"So they have no choice but to activate their astralguard formation to stop the darkfiend invasion, but their nova source consumption must be huge after keeping it up for thousands of years. The natural generation of nova source shouldn't be enough for them to keep this up for long. Is that why they asked Myriadpath Valley for help? In essence, the disciples on the Fortuna Ranking are being sent there to solve this issue."
Those were the key details of the mission briefing. Tianming smiled when he finished reading it. "Myriadpath Valley is truly cruel. Couldn't they just exterminate the darkfiends in one go by sending out an army of myriadpath saints? But instead, they chose to make it a testing ground for disciples. It may look like Myriadpath Valley helped out, but it isn't a charity at all. Bluemaple still has to keep the astralguard formation up while gratefully worshiping Myriadpath Valley all the while."
Such was the way of Myriadpath Valley. They would never do something for no benefit. If there were people in trouble somewhere, they had better be ready to have their blood sucked dry. For instance, disciples that go to kill darkfiends would also expect handsome rewards. If the Tianming Dynasty had been in charge, Tianming would have personally gone to exterminate anything that was causing his subjects trouble.
"Such missions have been going on for thousands of years, yet the darkfiends have never been fully wiped out and keep reproducing. I don't think their numbers have fallen at all. And Bluemaple can't afford to turn off its astralguard formation, either. Maybe the locals there don't want Myriadpath Valley disciples to go anymore, but simply can't refuse now that we’ve made it a mission." Since that was part of Myriadpath Valley's authority, there was nothing he could do about it. He did fantasize about making the Million Mundi part of his dynasty though.
"The mission to Darkfiend Den is full. Meet at the entrance of Battlesky Hall in two hours for departure." The one giving the mission was a myriadpath saint. He seemed so busy that he didn't bother giving Tianming a good look and immediately shooed him away. There was a substantial number of people there that neither knew nor cared about Tianming. Incidents like Huang Daosheng's would be quickly forgotten in a matter of three years or so.
"So there’s six people on that mission, huh?" The fact that only ranked fortuna disciples could participate meant that the mission would be rather difficult and entailed real risk. There was no way the darkfiends would fear and respect disciples from Myriadpath Valley like the locals.
Tianming immediately notified Lan Yun about it using a transmission stone when he left Battlesky Hall.
"Don't spend more than a year outside," Lan Yun said.
"Why?" Tianming asked.
"Just do what I say. Don't ask."
"Alright." Just because she said that didn't mean that Tianming would have to obey. She wouldn't kill him either way; the most he would get was some punishment.
Soon, two hours passed. The myriadpath saint had handed Tianming a sheet when he accepted the mission and it contained information about his teammates. "Cang Jue, Sun Xiaoyue, Jiang Xiu'er, Mo Guhe, and... Jian Qinghe?"
Based on the names, two or three of them were likely women. Myriadpath Valley's male to female ratio was four to one. For a team of six to have three women was something incredibly rare, not that he would mind it.
"It's him!" came the voice of a girl from behind Tianming. It sounded incredibly sweet and soft, but he could hear a hint of fear and hate in her tone of voice.
He turned back and saw four people behind him. The one who had spoken was a tiny girl in a goose-yellow short dress with light yellow irises. She was incredibly attractive and cute, almost like a vigorous teenage girl. However, her 'heavenly pattern barriers' weren’t small.
She glared at Tianming and furrowed her brows when his eyes met hers. She shrank back and whispered, "It really is that bastard! How unfortunate.... Why must it be him? What do we do if he freaks out?"
Tianming was appalled at how confident she was in her ability to make him lose control.
Beside the girl was a similarly blonde, slender youth with a cigarette in his mouth. He put an arm around the girl's shoulder and said, "Xiu'er, are you forgetting that I'm around? Forget who he is. Anyone that dares to look at my girl the wrong way will have their eyes dug out by me!"
The cute girl in the yellow dress must be Jiang Xiu'er. She indeed looked as pretty as her refined name suggested. Perhaps she was recalling what Tianming had allegedly done to Huang Jiaoyang in the arena after seeing his name on the mission sheet.
"Go away, you!" Jiang Xiu'er shook that blonde youth off of her and continued glaring at Tianming with hate, contempt, and caution.
She turned to the tall man in blue beside her and said, "Brother Cang Jue, you’re the team leader. Can we kick him out of the party? I find it disgusting to have to partner up with someone like him. I'm sure that Mo Guhe will hate someone like him, too. If he sets his sights on her...."
Mo Guhe was probably the girl in black in their group. She had black hair and eyes and stood to the side with her arms crossed. She seemed rather cold, and her tall figure made her give off the impression of a black rose. Her aura of beauty starkly contrasted against Jiang Xiu'er's.