"What do you think the discussion's about?"
"I heard that Lord Guanjun will be coming out of secluded meditation next month, could it be related to this?"
A few of the smart youths already had their guesses.
Sky Guards Battalion was a special force in the Guanjun Palace and it had two aims: One was to raise geniuses and the other was to supply new blood for the Guanjun Corps.
The creator of this organisation was Lord Guanjun himself.
"Everyone's here." A cold, emotionless voice echoed in the building.
Shua!
The youths only felt a blur before a person appeared.
"Third Guard." The Ten Sky Guards bowed their heads, including Feng Hanyue.
Third Guard was only a nickname and represent this person. Everyone knew that Lord Guanjun had eighteen Guanjun Corps and they helped him in the darkness. Any one of them were Martial Masters and their strength was far more powerful than normal Martial Masters.
The guard that had appeared on the summit that day was ranked seventeenth, but he had beaten the Qiu family elder in two moves. The Third Guard in front of them had even stronger strength.
"You should all know that Lord Guanjun will come out of secluded meditation in one month." The guard's voice was simple, straightforward.
Of course they knew!
The youth's present nodded their heads full of expectancy. Lord Guanjun was a legend in the Cloud Country and he had already received the title "Unbeatable", his fame even spread to neighbouring countries.
"There's one piece of news I want to announce: When Lord Guanjun comes out, he will take in one or a few disciples out of you all." Envy appeared in his eyes as he said this.
Lord Guanjun was taking in disciples?
As soon as he finished his words, the youths flushed red with excitement. Many would die without regrets just to see Lord Guanjun and if they were able to receive pointers from him, that would be their dreams.
But to become his disciple was something they never even dreamed about. After all, Lord Guanjun had a high authority in this country and he had apparently reached the Holy Martial Path...
Excitement shone on Zhao Feng's face, it looked like it was a good decision to come here. Here, he could interact with geniuses all over the country and he had the chance to see the legendary Lord Guanjun.
"There's still one month! The Sky Guards Battalion is giving you a chance at actual combat." When he spoke, a smile appeared on his lips.
Actual combat?
The ten were all curious and expectant at the same time. Being at the Sky Guards Battalion, they had many chances to spar and fight. But they hadn't experienced many life and death situations.
"There have been some bandits around lately with all of them at the fourth rank or higher. There's also suspicions of them being sent by our neighbouring country "Maple Fire Country".Your mission is to eliminate these bandits, while protecting the nearby villages at the same time." Third Guard spoke.
Bandits? Sent by neighbouring countries?
Although they were curious, most of them were excited.
"Sir Third Guard, why doesn't the Guanjun Palace just send their troops over and crush them?" Lei Cong asked his suspicions.
"Good question!" The man explained: "The bandits are extremely cunning as they don't always appear at the same place every time... They also sometimes pretend to be commoners... Anyways, the chance of eliminating them by sending our troops over is very low... Therefore, the Guanjun Palace has decided to give this chance to you youths."
Hearing this, Zhao Feng understood immediately.
The Guanjun Palace gave this mission to them because they lacked combat experience.
"I hope that through, this your potential will be further revealed. The Guanjun Palace had set this up so for any bandit of the fourth rank you kill, you receive 1 battle point, for every fifth rank you kill you receive 2 battle points.... If you're able to kill the leader, you get 20 battle points! Those that rank highest get extra rewards." Third Guard continued.
"May I ask what do battle points do?" One of the youths asked.
"You can spend the battle points at the Treasury Hall where you can exchange it for Martial Arts, resources and weapons... for example 1 battle points can be exchanged for 1 five hundred year old blood plant, 10 battle points can get you a peak ranked martial art, 50 battle points can get you a half-Holy martial art." The man answered.
Hearing this, the blood of the youth's boiled.
Peak ranked martial arts! Half-Holy martial arts!
All of them felt moved. Every one of them all had more or less one peak ranked martial art, but it was limited to either speed, defense, or offensive. Therefore, peak ranked martial arts were extremely precious for them.
Although there was an incomplete Holy martial art in Zhao Feng's left eye, it's actual use wasn't even better than a Half-Holy martial art.
Furthermore, battle points could be exchanged for weapons and resources.
"It looks like the Guanjun Palace had decided to properly raise these geniuses. Just killing a few bandits alone can give you battle points which can be exchanged for such precious resources." Zhao Feng thought in his heart.
He was extremely looking forward to this mission. The fact that he had his mysterious left eye gave him a better survival rate.
"The mission starts 5 days from now, go and get ready!" Third Guard then explained the details in depth more, then he gave the disbanding order.
After the discussion was over, the news spread amongst the Sky Guards Battalion.
The mission wasn't limited to just the Ten Sky Guards, but the Ten Sky Guards led the squads. For the next few days, the members of the Sky Guards Battalion started to form teams in accordance to how the rewards were split.
Some of the strongest teams included Lei Cong's and Lu Xiaoyu's in which all the people were of the fourth rank or higher.
Obviously, there were still people going solo such as Feng Hanyue, the number one of the Ten Sky Guards.
Feng Hanyue was the only Martial Master, therefore his strength alone beat a team's.
Because Zhao Feng had just arrived, he formed a team with Zhao Yufei and Huang Qi, but the strength of his team was incomparable to Lei Cong's and Lu Xiayu's. However, Zhao Feng had confidence that his battle points would still be one of the top.
As the mission was just a few days away, Zhao Feng ate one of the other thousand year plants.
Three days later.
The green ray of light in the dimension of his left eye had reached six foot nine.
At this time, Zhao Feng still had one more plant, but he didn't use it because:
Firstly, continuous use of resources meant that the effect would decrease. Secondly, Zhao Feng would rather save it for the critical moment when he would be trying to reach the seventh rank.
"My cultivation is at the late stages of the sixth rank, but there's still a bit of distance to the peak."Zhao Feng thought in his heart.
Therefore, he became even more expectant of the mission as one's potential would be fully unleashed through life and death battles. In the blink of an eye, the five days given to prepare passed.
Another surprising thing was that Zhao Yufei had broken through to the sixth rank two days ago with the help of Zhao Feng's resources.
Morning.
All the youths of the fourth rank or higher split into small teams and left the Guanjun Palace. The group of three formed up by Zhao Feng, Zhao Yufei and Huang Qi were also in it.
"Brother Feng, is your real cultivation only at the peak fifth rank?" Zhao Yufei asked her suspicions.
Back in the Zhao family, she clearly knew how fast Zhao Feng progressed, but she had reached the sixth rank already. So how could Zhao Feng still be at the peak fifth rank?
Hearing this, Huang Qi was also interested.
"You're right, this isn't my real cultivation." Zhao Feng didn't hide it either and released his true aura.
Peak sixth rank!
Both Zhao Yufei and Huang Qi felt the pressure bearing towards them. Zhao Feng's aura was extremely dense and heavy, it brought more pressure than other peak sixth ranks.
After he released his aur, Zhao Feng hid it once more, suppressing it to the beginning of the sixth rank, the same as Zhao Yufei and Huang Qi.
Zhao Feng showed his teammates his true strength to gain more trust. Now that he hidden it away, he could do sneak attacks in the battles coming. The three left the Guanjun Province City and they arrived at its borderline after a few days of travel. This area was complicated with many trees, rivers, streams, cliffs and a few villages around, but this place was also the only path that lead towards Maple Fire Country, so the bandits could have been sent by them.
"Once we leave this village, we'll be entering the danger area where the bandits lurk." Zhao Feng opened up his map and discussed with Zhao Yufei and Huang Qi.
"Hehe, Lady Yufei, do you have the interest to join my team?" A clear arrogant laughter sounded.
Zhao Feng and the other two turned around and found Lu Xiaoyu leading a team of seven to eight people passing by.