True Intentions?

Jin Mu returned to the courtyard where the Minister stayed. There he saw the lone figure of the Minister Of Assigning, standing behind his counter peering into his direction coldly. 

Currently standing within the courtyard was the recently arrived Jin Mu and the Minister who seemed to have practically lived within this courtyard, Hong Cui. 

Seeing the slender figure of Jin Mu approach, Hong Cui squinted his eyes as he evaluated the boy within the final two steps he took towards him. 

'Hoh..' He internally acknowledged this as he knew that Jin Mu had not been gone for that long. 

Rather, seeing him here, Hong Cui knew that Jin Mu had finished his previous two tasks at a quickened pace and was now here to begin his third task. 

To him, for a mere slave to work this quickly it was something truly worth giving recognition to.

But that was all there was to it. 

Hong Cui quickly brushed off his meager amount of recognition and praise for Jin Mu internally, before focusing his vision on the now and suddenly approaching figures in the background. 

He evaluated them as well, only releasing a muffled breath of disdain as his eyes were soon stained with disgust. 

He sighed before turning his back towards the grouping members of slaves. With the exception of Jin Mu, a total of seven slaves gathered, whereas it totaled eight when he was accounted for. 

Among the group there were three young males, two young females and two middle-aged men. 

Jin Mu knowing that this task would most likely bring in its wake, the extinction of his group members, did not bother to build small talk or dabble with formalities of introductions. 

He, instead, examined them before squinting his eyes in disgust . To him, these slaves were below useless. 

"No, perhaps even a person deemed below the average useless person would still amount to more when compared to this bunch." He scowled under his breath before releasing a sigh in defeat. What did he expect? He might as well be the only confirmed cultivator amongst the mortal slaves.

But, unknown to him, it was all thanks to the sheer realization of this that aided him with uncovering a rather shocking piece of information. 

Jin Mu slowly began widening his eyes at the sudden realization of the dots connecting. 

There… was no third task.

Yes it is as mentioned! Jin Mu could not believe it as he pieced it together perfectly. This mission known as 'Third Task' , already seemingly impossible, was further dragged along those lines when he first saw his group. 

They were not given a mission of importance, no! They were assigned a mission of death! Meaning, they were basically in the midst of their own pre-meditated murder in the form of a damned mission!

Jin Mu's body tensed. He glanced at the Minister's back who had now turned his head slightly back to gaze at the slaves. That's when he saw it. A smile of malice and horror, one yearning for blood etched deeply onto the Minister Of Assigning, Hong Cui's face.

Evil, that was what Hong Cui could be summed up to be.

'Damn it!' Jin Mu cursed. He could not help himself from swearing as he envisioned the painful death that awaited them.

But what was the purpose of sending them to their own deaths? Jin Mu could think of three possible reasons as to why this was currently the case. 

One: The Hellish Faction was attempting to remove those they deemed slow and inefficient, meaning the slaves who barely kept up with the work speed of the demanded amount. All though they can openly execute them and make things simpler it would in the long run worsen the terror the slaves felt which meant further worsening the paranoia of each slave, eventually having a negative impact on their work pace. Which is why Jin Mu considered this a possible reason.

Two: They were testing the slaves in hopes of reaping fruitful rewards from their own slaves such as geniuses by having them gather in groups and face difficult tasks. Although it was probably the least possible of the three it still stood within Jin Mu's theorems as he did not wish to be 

even the slightest amount of carefree.  

Three: It was all just a form of entertainment for none but one, Minster Hong Cui. This was one of the most convincing reasons that stood out to Jin Mu as he had previously, in the span of a short moment grasped Hong Cui's sadistic personality. And as such, he also believed that Hong Cui, would personally formulate difficult tasks of his own and assign them to a random group of slaves in a possible attempt to indulge himself in the pleasure of sending the lower lifeforms known as mortals to their own death. 

With a contemplative look he took a few glances at Hong Cui and the few slaves gathered. He sighed once more and walked towards the gathered slaves finally merging into the small crowd. 

Hong Cui finally turned around to face the slaves. Staring at them his eyes slowly scanned from left to right.

Then, he spoke.

"So, I, naturally, have no more orders for you as I suppose things were made clear, granted you mindless pigs understood what was stated upon your pieces of paper, right?"

The slaves flinched at the harsh words of the Minister whereas only Jin Mu who had his head lowered kept a motionless expression. 

Immediately, they answered with a "Yes, Lord!" Earning them a glance from Hong Cui before he continued on with his speech, "I only have a bit more to say and that is that you pigs are tasked with such a mission, you all should feel proud !" 

He scornfully spat as a sinister grin crept onto his face. He stared at them with a twisted expression, one of pure evil. It was a gaze that made all who bore witness to it, shudder in horror. 

Being as he had now ended his words he moved his hand and with a twirl of his pale and demonic fingers, small insects seemingly materialized out of thin air as a silver ring which encased his middle-finger with a perfect fit shone luminously within a small, granted centimetre stretch of land. 

Quickly as it appeared, it vanished as each slave suddenly felt a jolt of pain consume their bodies, rushing towards their heads. 

Jin Mu was no exception as he too began to clutch his head with beads of sweat forming upon his back and forehead. "Argh!!" He released a pained cry as he fell upon one knee. Quickly however, it was over. Jin Mu recovered his former self as there was now only one difference. An feeling he hadn't felt since arriving here.

That was a feeling of panic. During his moments of pain he felt the insect crawling within his body rushing towards his head. 

Despite this however, he managed to calm his chaotic mind and directly spoke to Saber. 'Saber, what the hell did that bastard put in my body?!' Saber, being the almighty system it was, had already begun analyzing the parasite as quickly as it had entered his body.

'Jin, this parasite is known as a Gu and it is just one type of its species.' Hearing Saber's summary he could not help but feel his breath quicken. He was right! Earlier he had believed that sending them out without a guardian to supervise their movements was stupid and he of all people knew that the Hellish Faction was not to be taken so lightly.

So naturally he knew that they would surely have ways to keep track of them without having to risk the lives of their cultivators being lost if they were to encounter powerful entities along their expeditions. Jin Mu knew that their way was in the form of this 'Gu'. Immediately he jolted at Saber and hurried it to give a report on the Gu.

Complying with his order the mechanical parasite quickly formulated the Gu's details upon a red panel screen which directly appeared before the young boy's eyes. 

It read,

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Name: Caterpillar Of The Night

Species: Gu(Among the Dark Elemented species of its kind)

Rank: Tier 3 

Description: A Gu used for tracking and spying purposes. Can either be used by either feeding it the flesh of the victim or implanting it into its victim's body. To keep track of its location the user of this Gu must inject their spiritual energy into the Gu before inserting it into the bodies of their victims.

______________________________

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Analyzation, whom other than Saber could have done it better than this? It was truly an incredible feature that Saber was equipped with. 

Jin Mu, reading the 'file' of the Gu couldn't help but widen his eyes in shock. A Gu such as this was rather a very useful one and one as useful as said Gu was also very costly as well. 

Jin Mu ignored the irrelevant details however and jumped straight to the point. 'Is there any way for you to remove this Gu from my body, Saber?' 

'Yes there is, however I suggest not to proceed at this moment but rather when you and the group of slaves are far away from the Hellish Faction. Hearing this Jin Mu gave a nod and then muttered "I'll accept these conditions as for now."

But just as his words of acceptance had bellowed out a system notice from Saber followed behind. 'Congratulations Jin, you've unlocked a feature of the system labeled: Side Missions. Can't move with these main quests? No worries as your side missions are here to save the day! With the Side Mission feature a mission can be triggered at any given moment so being observant is a key factor here.' Came Saber's mechanical voice as in between its announcement it's pattern of advertising resembled those advertisers of the 90's. 

Jin Mu couldn't even speak as the shock and surprise he had now felt was enough to leave him speechless. 

Taking advantage of his silence the smug parasite continued with its announcement further kicking up a storm of chaotic thoughts within the boy's head. 

'This feature had been unlocked due to you accepting the conditions of this mission hence, accepting the side mission dubbed, 'Scaling The Mountain Of The Weak.' The details of this mission are as followed:

_______________________________________________________________________

Name: Scaling The Mountain Of The Weak

Type: Side Mission

Rank: Tier 3

Probability Of Completion: 35.1

Description: A mission given by the Minister Of Assigning known as Hong Cui, you are required to complete the assigned Task 3 and return to the Hellish Faction with at least one of your group members surviving alongside you. Failure would not be accepted as the system has no use for the pathetic. If you fail a punishment worthy of your failure shall befall you. As for rewards, they are strongly dependent on how well you perform on your given quests.'

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Jin Mu reading the red panel screen before his glistening eyes could not calm his breathing as his excitement surely began growing. Reading the panel screen he saw that compared to the 'main quests' or so he would from now on address them the side missions had a few different features. 

Saber cleared the mist of confusion that gathered however by stating that since the side missions paled in comparison to the main quests in quality he would gain more transparency from the side missions rather than the main quests.

Jin Mu laughed maniacally within his mind. Such a gift was given to him by the disgusting being known as Minister Hong Cui! He must… no he will.. absolutely repay the damned spawn of evil with all of his gratitude. 

'Kahahaha! Minister Hong I truly am grateful that you selected me for this task! I'll make sure to take good care of this gift!' Jin Mu maniacally declared out within his crazed mind. He resisted the sinister grin which tried to overtake his stoic expression however as he suddenly took in a mouthful of air before releasing it slowly. 

A calm finally returned to his crazed mind. 

He chuckled before finally they were all dispatched with Hong Cui sending them off on their expedition. 

Just as they left the courtyard, Hong Cui released a laugh filled with heavy layers of killing intent. His eyes formed into upside down crescents as he gave an ear to ear grin allowing his sharpened teeth to glisten once revealed. 

"Let the fun begin!"