Chapter 12: Mission & Merit Hall

A few hours later Nie leaves the infirmary healed up, only some minor wounds were left because they needed to focus on the ones that went into a fight with the other clans. //Now that I'm somewhat healed up I should go and give the elders the herbs so I can finish my task. Afterwards I should head back to the dormitory and start reading the manual that elder Jian gave me//

While he thinks about the manual he takes it out and looks at it. //This little thing already caused me some trouble, so I should learn everything in there quickly and then get rid of it// then he continues to walk away from the infirmary and takes out the token and sends in his mind the place he needs to go to finish his task.

Task: Herbs

Difficulty: Dangerous (changed from minor dangerous because of the unrest in the forest)

Location: Wolf Howl Dormitory

Floor: 1st Underground floor mission & merit hall

//Oh, nice. I didn't know that I could even see how difficult the task is. What if I look at the other tasks so I can see their difficulty too?//

[Trial task information locked]

//Well, I didn't expect to see that. *sighs mentally* At least now I know where I need to go//

He then begins to head towards the dormitory and while doing that he passes by some injured warriors that were getting carried towards the infirmary. Some had mild injures while some even had wounds that could be their end if not treated quickly.

//Seems like the forest is off limit for me with my actual strength when even the warriors are receiving injures like that// //You can't really call them warriors young Nie, for this clan may treat them well, but they're nothing more than cannon fodder// Nie stops in his steps for a moment and asks //Why?.. Wait, because of the realm that comes after body forging^ Do you think they have some of them?//

//Young Nie, they not only have some of that realm, they even have higher realms in their clan. In truth the number of all the cultivators at the body forging period it's not even a fourth of all the Qi realm or Higher ones//

Azure says in a monotone tone while casting an illusion around Nie, so that no one sees how his expression changes between shocked, scared and impressed. //But senior Azure, why are they scared of a demon beast reaching that realm then?//

//They seem to be scared of its strength, but in truth they're scared of what happens if it has a bloodline. You should know young Nie that a demonic beast of the inner qi realm will have a small chance of awakening its ancestral bloodline, and if that happens others will try to their hands on it// Nie listens carefully while Azure explains it, but right after a new question comes out of his mouth from his mind.

//But why is that so, and what benefits do you get out of that?// // There are multiple benefits, some of them would be that a demonic beast that awakens its bloodline will grow stronger than others and it can increase its own bloodline purity overtime//

//That means that if you made a contract with a beast like that, young Nie, you would acquire a beast that will be stronger than most of the others while it has even the potential to reach even greater heights. Even I would be interested into a mere beast of the inner qi realm if it had a great bloodline//

Azure says in an honest way towards Nie, while his energy body inside Nie looks towards the sky. Nie notices that and sighs for a moment before asking Azure in a careful tone //Could it be that Senior Azure has someone outside and is missing this person?//

Azure was in a trance while looking upward, because of that he only reacted a few seconds after Nie answered his question //Yes young Nie. I miss someone that was important to me, it's my contracted beast Balrat. I left him behind because he was gravely injured by our last fight and I didn't want to risk to lose him. Who would have known that I came too late for the rescue of your plane and now trapped in this new plane//

He again sighs while tears start to form in his eyes, some tears fall down, but shortly after he recovers himself from this unstable state //I didn't cry young Nie, understood? I just had something in my eyes// Nie chuckles for a moment but agrees to calm down Azure and to not risk that he gets angry.

Shortly after they arrive in the mission & merit hall they look around it to get familiar with the surrounding and which hall is which. This hall is split into two sides, one side is the mission side, where you can acquire missions and the other is the merit side, where you can exchange your points that you got from missions for other kind of stuff.

The merit hall front area was filled with rows of seats standing back to back, and after every third seat there would be a separation made of a plant between and the next three seats. Some plants special because they even had a small water springs that flow down their leaves which creates a calming atmosphere.

On the walls of the merit hall there were different kind of boards with prices for objects that you can exchange you points for, but there was a restriction on it, the restriction was that you needed a specific rank to be allowed to exchange your points for the objects on the boards, so even if you had an endless amount of points you couldn't buy everything here.

The middle wall area of the merit hall is full with exchange stands, where an elderly, female or male, would sit in. Most of them would have a monotone expression or even expressions of looking down, only in some cases do they have a kind expression towards the person that wants to exchange their points for something.

It wasn't even hard to notice that the people that received good treatment was because they were probably higher members of the clan, while the other ones were low members, either because of the clothing they wore or just the feeling they gave others when someone looked at them.

Even Nie realized this fact quickly and couldn't help himself but feeling somewhat disgust because of them //They act so high and mighty, but did they forget that they once too were like this too? I just can't understand people like that// He sighs and then looks towards the mission hall area and walks towards it.

The mission hall was quite different than the merit hall area, it had no seats, but for that they have 5 gigantic pillars with names on it. These pillars probably represented a ranking of who is the strongest in a specific area. They had walls filled with boards too, but didn't have any prices listed, but mission papers hanging on it with different kind of difficulties and different kind of missions, it ranged from normal gathering missions until killing human beings.

Even their exchange stands where you get your missions and give your materials were different. They were filled with elders too, but all of them had some kind of battle scars and were filled with compassion towards the ones that came back injured, because the elders did not forget their roots and knew that if you gave them comfort sometimes they wouldn't lose their will to do mission and would grow stronger.

Because of this different kind of handling the people the elders of the two different halls hate each other, you could really feel the hate of some elders of the mission hall if the elders of the elders of the merit hall mocked a weak person who risked his life to get points for the object.

Even Nie was affected by these emotions, his will was still quite weak and his train of thought was quite similar to the elders of the mission hall, so it gave even a greater feeling of disgust towards the merit hall elders when the hate intruded his mind.

//Snap out of it young Nie, you can't do a thing with your strength right now, endure it// Says Azure quickly to Nie who began to have an expression full of hate towards the elders of the merit hall. Luckily he snaps out of it because of Azure and changes his expressions quickly to a friendlier one before one of the merit hall elders could notice him.

//Thank you senior Azure, I was just filled with so much hate, if you didn't bring me out of it I would have probably done something that I would regret// Nie felt how he just escaped a path of no return and that made him happy, he quickly turned around and passed through the mass of people that was running around here and there to get in line to get in line for giving his materials for his task.

Half an hour passed and it was finally Nie's turn to talk with the elder in the stand and give his materials towards him. The elder that was sitting in the stand was an elderly woman. She had gray hair that was close to looking silver and her face was filled with wrinkles and some scars from battles in her time as a young warrior. She had light green eyes and a kind smile on her lips and was wearing an outfit similar with the warriors, it was just loose and she had no belts but a strange emblem in the upper right area of her chest.

On her right side was a wooden walking stick, but when Nie looked closer he noticed that on some places it had strange reddish spots, it seems like it was not an ordinary walking stick. The elderly woman looks closer at Nie "Little one will you stand here for all the time and look at my beautiful self or do you want to take a mission?"

She says in a voice that didn't really suited her age, it sounded more like the voice of a younger woman than the voice of an elderly woman.

Nie gets embarrassed at these words for a moment and he even turns red. "Hehe.. I'm sorry, elder. I'm here to give the materials of my weekly task" The elderly woman chuckles a few seconds afterwards because of Nie's reaction "Okay young one, then tell me your name and the materials, so I can check your mission and if the materials are really the right ones"

Nie nods towards the elderly woman and takes out two bags filled with the herbs "I'm Nie and I had the task of gathering wolf heart and gray eyes herbs" The elder takes a glance at the herbs inside the bags and then looks towards the pile of papers that she has beside her and searches through it, only a few moments later she takes out a paper and looks at it confused.

"Mhm, strange. This paper states that you do not have any cultivation, but I can see that you already have acquired a somewhat of cultivation, could you give me your left wrist to check your cultivation level?"

Nie couldn't believe it, she felt his cultivation, but how? Azure could feel it because he's connected with him and no one else, even Bai Wei, only noticed that he had cultivation in him when they fought and only because of that he dared to hunt him in the forest, because the rule of cultivators of not attacking non-cultivators did not apply anymore. And does this woman say that she feels that he has cultivation, but can't say which level.

"Elder I can give you my wrist to check my cultivation, but before that could you explain how you found out that I have some level of cultivation?" Nie asks in a cautious voice "Sure, it's not a secret, anybody that reaches the realm beyond body forging period can somewhat feel the cultivation of people in the body forging period, but even that can be different between the people of that level"

"Some people can feel it better, while some worser and I'm one of the best in my generation" she says while beginning to laugh "I can say that you are in the level of skin tempering and you have or almost reached minor success in it, am I right?"

Nie nods and give her his hand and she begins to touch it. A strange light begins to spread from her fingers that touches his veins, this energy starts spreading throughout his body "Interesting, I was right. You already reached minor success in your skin tempering and you're already halfway through it, moreover you even achieved some level of soul cultivation. I'm impressed, can you tell me how you did that?" she asks in a carefree tone as if it was normal to tell her the secrets of one success.

//Senior Azure, what should I do? I don't know how can I explain it// he says mentally towards Azure and he begins to chuckle //Just tell her that you had some kind of energy left behind in your body that activates itself when you began to train and aided you in your progress, but it is all already used up// when he heard that he just wanted to give himself a facepalm but he stopped and answered the elder's question.

"I don't really know either. I just know that I had some kind of energy in my body, maybe left behind by my parents? It activated itself when I began to cultivate and guide the qi of the world and strengthen it, because of that I could cultivate a long time without receiving pain, but there was a drawback, I just cultivated without any care and didn't notice that the energy began to lessen and so I used all of it" shortly after he looks down with an embarrassed expression to continues his act.

The elder looks at him carefully and then nods "Right, you where the little one that little Jiang found in the area who we thought was a natural treasure being born, maybe it wasn't a natural treasure what we felt but your parents who used a technique to give you some energy to protect you" She then takes the materials and stores them away "But now we should continue with the exchange, it probably brings up painful memories when we talk about that, now could you give me your token"

Nie nods and some tears roll down his cheeks, then he takes out his token and gives it to her "Here elder" the elder takes it and again some strange light appears "I have received your materials and with that you finished your task successfully, because the herbs were of a rather good quality you received extra merit points. Do you want to take on a new quest or rest for the moment?" "I want to go train elder, so I want to rest" He says in a kind voice and the elder smiles

"Good and my name is Láng Shufen, I trained little Jiang and because he rescued you and brought you in, you have some connections to me, so call me senior Shufen, understood?" she asks Nie "Understood el- I mean Senior Shufen and maybe, could you say thanks for me towards senior Jiang? Because I don't know when I'm able to meet him again so I want to thank him for this opportunity he gave me"

Shufen smiles and nods "Sure I can do that, and now go train so you can become stronger and maybe one day strand side by side with little Jiang as a tamer of our clan" Nie smile and then walks away from the mission hall and looks towards the merit hall //maybe the clan has eclipse mushroom, I should check it out//.