Chapter 240: Based on What? Based on the Saber in my Hand!
Chapter 240: Based on What? Based on the Saber in my Hand!
Although it was simply an ordinary word, it carried a certain might. It reverberated in everybody’s ears, causing them not to dare have any intention of disobeying.
He infused his mental strength into his words, Xiao Chen thought to himself quietly. He scanned him with his Spiritual Sense and could clearly feel it. Jiang Chi had merged his strong mental strength into the word.
Otherwise, it would not have achieved such a result. When he had the opportunity, he could give it a try. Xiao Chen had comprehended something from the word.
Jiang Chi was satisfied with the reaction of the crowd. After muttering to himself a while, he said, “The mission is about to start. I believe most of you have guessed the importance of this mission. Missions that make the Heavenly Saber Pavilion issue the Saber Emperor Convening Order are few.
“This mission concerns the survival of the Heavenly Saber Pavilion. I hope you will put forth your best effort in this. After his mission is complete, everyone will receive a hundred Medial Grade Spirit Stones. You may also free pick one peak Earth Ranked Cultivation Technique, Spirit Weapon, and Battle Armor.”
After he spoke, everyone was dumbfounded. They did not expect the rewards from the Heavenly Saber Pavilion to be so generous.
One hundred Medial Grade Spirit Stones exchanged for ten thousand Inferior Grade Spirit Stones. Of course, no one was silly enough to exchange Medial Grade Spirit Stones for Inferior Grade Spirit Stones. This was simply just a comparison.
To a cultivator who advanced to Martial Saint, Inferior Grade Spirit Stones were already insufficient to satisfy them. They would be able to exhaust an Inferior Grade Spirit Stone with a day. Furthermore, its effects would not be as good as before.
If one advanced to Medial Grade Martial Saint, the effects of Inferior Grade Spirit Stones became even weaker. When one advanced to Superior Grade Martial Saint, Inferior Grade Spirit Stones could only be used to recover Spiritual Energy; they would no longer help in cultivation.
This was because the density of Spiritual Energy in Inferior Grade Spirit Stones was too thin. At that point, they could only aid cultivation by changing to Medial Grade Spirit Stones.
If all hundred people could come out successfully, the Heavenly Saber Pavilion had to take out ten thousand Medial Grade Spirit Stones. Xiao Chen guessed this was at least a fifth of the Heavenly Saber Pavilion’s storage.
After all, the Spirit Mines in the Great Qin Nation were not ranked very high. It would be difficult if one wanted to obtain Medial Grade Spirit Stones.
Zhang Lie, who stood to the side, sighed, “What a large amount… My Zhang Clan saved for several hundred years in Yunyang City, and we only have tens of Spirit Stones. We can not bare to use them.”
Xiao Chen frowned tightly; his thoughts went even further. The rewards of a mission normally correlated to the danger of the mission. The higher the rewards, the more difficult the mission would be.
Jiang Chi pointed to Lu Chen and Liu Ruyue, who were beside him. Then he continued, “Lu Chen and Liu Ruyue will be responsible for this operation. Later, you will all be divided into ten small teams. The team captains will be the top ten core disciples on the Wind Cloud List. If you have any questions, you may ask the team captain directly.
“The team captains have absolute authority in this mission. You must obey the orders of the team captain. We will allocate your teams now and set off in ten minutes.”
After that, they all divided into teams. The distribution was completely based on chance; there were no observable patterns. Mu Heng, Zhang Lie, and Xiao Chen were all coincidentally placed on the same team. There were six other core disciples they did not know.
Their team captain was the only female disciple in the top ten, Yun Kexin. She wore white, and there was an extremely calm expression on her delicate face. There was a slender saber hung from her waist as she walked leisurely over to them.
When Yun Kexin saw them, she swept her eyes over all their faces. She said, “Call out your name and your cultivation. Report your strengths and the attribute of your Martial Spirit. We will start with you.”
Yun Kexin was pointing at Xiao Chen. Xiao Chen thought for a while before saying, “Qingyun Peak, Ye Chen. Inferior Grade Martial Saint. My strengths are my Movement Techniques and Lingyun Saber Technique. The attribute of my Martial Spirit is lightning.”
When Xiao Chen said his Martial Spirit’s attribute was lightning, a strange look appeared in Yun Kexin’s calm eyes. Her gaze lingered on Xiao Chen’s face.
Then the rest continued, “Beichen Peak, Mu Heng. Peak Inferior Grade Martial Grade Master. I specialize in defense. My Martial Spirit’s attribute is wood.”
“Tianyue Peak, Zhang Lie. Inferior Grade Martial Saint. I do not have any special strengths. My Martial Spirit’s attribute is wind.”
“Qianduan Peak, Gao Xiang. Medial Grade Martial Saint. My specialty is offense. My Martial Spirit’s attribute is fire.”
After all nine of them introduced themselves, they all had a rough understanding of each other.
Yun Kexin nodded slightly and pointed at Xiao Chen, “From now on, you are this team’s vice-captain. Aside from myself, he has the most authority.”
Not only did Xiao Chen feel surprised, but the other eight people also felt extremely shocked. This was especially so for Qianduan Peak’s Gao Xiang. His cultivation was the highest amongst the ten people, even higher than the peak Inferior Grade Martial Saint Yun Kexin.
Gao Xiang was already unhappy that Yun Kexin was the team captain. However, she was one of the top ten core disciples. Her strength spoke for itself, so he had no choice but to accept it.
However, now he had to let someone who was an early Inferior Grade Martial Saint be the vice-captain. Gao Xiang could not bear it.
Gao Xiang snorted coldly and said, “He should be the vice-captain based on what? Do you not understand that, in the realm of Martial Saints, even the difference of one grade is a hundredfold difference in strength.”
There were no fluctuations to Yun Kexin expressions. She replied calmly, “The reason is that he is stronger than you. Furthermore, the lightning attribute will bring a great advantage in this mission.”
Gao Xiang laughed mockingly, “Are you joking? A person who recently advanced to Inferior Grade Martial Saint is stronger than me, a Medial Grade Martial Saint?”
“Chi!”
Just as Gao Xiang spoke, he heard a piercing trill near his ear, reverberating repeatedly. His mind went blank temporarily.
By the time he recovered his wits and halfway drew his huge saber from his back, he suddenly realized there was a two finger wide and 6.66 meters long saber at his chest. He did not know when it appeared.
The saber blade tore his clothes and left a tiny wound on his chest.
“Dong! Dong!”
Gao Xiang’s heart beat very hard, uncontrollably; there was cold sweat on his forehead.
A horrifying killing Qi hovered over his chest. It was as though the tip of the saber would pierce through his skin in the next instant and smash his heart to pieces.
However, Yun Kexin still maintained an extremely calm expression. It was as though she did something negligible. She said in a soft, gentle voice, “Cultivation realm is important, but sometimes, it is not absolute. I normally have very good judgment. Are you questioning my judgment?”
“I’m not; I just have some doubts.” Gao Yang half raised the huge saber in his hand, his voice trembling.
“Pu Ci!”
The saber in Yun Kexin’s hand advanced slightly further, pressing on the ribs through the wound. She asked indifferently, “Do you still have any doubts?”
Gao Xiang had never felt his death so close at hand. He said in a panic, “There are none left! No more!”
“Huang Dang!” Yun Kexin sheathed her saber back into the scabbard. Gao Xiang’s tense mood immediately relaxed. He was sprawled on the ground, gasping for air.
Xiao Chen, Mu Heng, and Zhang Lie all exchanged a glance. Their meaning was clear; this woman was too horrifying. The experience of the past few seconds would probably become Gao Yang’s nightmare for life.
Yun Kexin shifted her gaze to Xiao Chen and asked Xiao Chen, “Do you have any doubts?”
Xiao Chen answered directly, “None!”
The way Yun Kexin dealt with this was direct and decisive. Honestly speaking, this suited Xiao Chen very well; there were no unnecessary regulations or restrictions.
Although Xiao Chen did not fear Yun Kexin, there was no need to create any conflict over this. There were no problems with him becoming the vice-captain as long as it did not endanger his safety.
There were no obvious emotions on Yun Kexin’s face. She nodded, “It’s question time. You only have five minutes; make your questions concise.”
The same thing was happening on the other teams. The ten core disciples were explaining the contents of the missions to the others.
Maybe because Yun Kexin’s earlier actions startled the others, but there was an awkward silence.
Xiao Chen organized his thoughts and asked, “What are the details of the mission? Where is it and what do we have to do?”
Yu Kexin did not think too long before she answered, “The details of the mission are simple. Enter a sub-space between the Demonic World Abyss and the Tianwu continent and kill all the demons there.
“The location of the mission is that sub-space. The sub-space is located at the back of Lingyun Mountain Range, about five hundred meters south. There is a seal preventing people from entering; as for the other details, I’m not sure.
“We simply require you to do your best to kill the demons in the sub-space, preventing damage to the seal.”
This was a very stereotypical answer. When everyone heard it, they sweated in their hearts. They needed to kill all the demons in the sub-space; how was that simple?
When Zhang Lie saw that Yun Kexin seemed approachable, he quickly asked, “How are we calculating the rewards of this mission? To what extent do we have to kill for the mission to be considered successful?”
The reward of the Medial Grade Spirit Stones had a strong attraction to everybody, not just Zhang Lie. When Zhang Lie asked this question, even Gao Xiang listened carefully.
After all, everyone knew the Heavenly Saber Pavilion was not stupid. They would not reward you with Spirit Stones, Secret Techniques, or Spirit Weapons for simply walking around the sub-space before exiting. There had to be a certain standard.
Yun Kexin’s answer did not disappoint anyone. She continued, “The conditions involved are personal. Each person will have to kill at least twenty demons. After killing the demons, there will be Demon Cores. You simply have to hand over twenty Demon Cores. If you exceeded that, there will be extra rewards.”
[TL notes: I believe the Demon Cores (魔核) are different from the Demonic Cores (妖核) from the Trial of Gloomy Forest. Likewise, Demonic Beasts are different from demons, I believe. Small recap: Demonic Beasts are Spirit Beasts corrupted by Demonic Qi.]
A female disciple from Gangyu Peak asked, “When will the mission end? How long will it last? Can we come out the moment we succeed?”
Yun Kexin raised her head to look at the sun for a while. Then, she lowered her head and answered, “The five minutes are up. I will not take any more questions for now.”
She really calculated the timing to the dot. Xiao Chen had counted in his heart; it had been precisely five minutes. After that, the atmosphere became more sullen. With Yun Kexin there, no one dared ask any more questions.
The arrangement of the Elders’ Assembly was pretty good. Every ten people would have a team captain. The team captain would explain the mission to the ten people. This would save a lot of time.
Otherwise, if the First Elder had to explain everything one by one, then answer hundreds of questions; it might have taken him half the day. The results were pretty good.